Tanners

The building comprises two houses, originally a timber-framed hall house dating back to the 16th century or earlier, situated on Hunsdon High Street in Hunsdon village. The structure was altered in the later 17th century to a lobby-entry plan, incorporating a central chimney house with a chimney at the upper end of the hall. A floor was inserted into the hall, and the roofs of the hall and parlour wing were rebuilt, with a spiral staircase added to the service wing (now No. 5). Further division into three houses occurred in the later 19th century, subsequently reducing to the current two.

The building presents an asymmetrical facade with three windows, featuring projecting cross wings to both the front and rear. It has steep gabled roofs covered in old red tiles with cusped bargeboards. A large, cruciform central chimney (partially rebuilt at the top) and a later side chimney to the south wing are prominent. Rear additions, lower in height and slated, were constructed in the 19th century. Leaded mullioned windows with iron plate casements are found in the cross wings, with a four-light window on each floor of the hall range. A fine 18th-century eight-panel raised and fielded door, featuring a moulded architrave with egg and dart carving, is located to the right of the window, protected by a flat hood. A blocked entrance with a moulded surround and console brackets is visible on the north flank of the north wing.

The north cross wing features a three-bay roof with clasped purlins, utilising re-used soot-blackened rafters from the hall range. The hall itself has a butt-purlin roof with collar trusses set on older walls, defined by a wide bay flanked by narrower bays for the chimney and former cross passage. The south wing retains its 16th-century wind-braced side purlin roof. The rear wall of the north cross wing exhibits heavy straight tension braces on the upper floor.

The interior is a well-finished structure with chamfered and stopped posts, rails, and axial beams on both floors, divided into a two-bay heated front room and a one-bay unheated rear room on each floor. The hall (now a dining room) features a two-panel door to the staircase, an eight-panel oak door to the lobby (both with brass case locks), and a cased axial beam with a moulded dado rail. A modern fire surround is present. The chamber above the hall has chamfered and stopped ceiling beams, swept jowled posts, an 18th-century two-panel cupboard door, and an ovolo-moulded fire surround. A stepped jowled post is also found in the passage, with chamfered and stopped details.

The building was recorded on the 1842 Tithe Map as a farmhouse named Tanners House, surrounded by farm buildings. It represents an exceptional timber-framed former hall house with numerous historic features, serving as a focal point within the picturesque group at the southern end of the village Conservation Area.