Ashmeads

Ashmeads is a house with a history spanning the 16th century, with substantial rebuilding in the mid-17th century, and later extensions in the 1960s and 1971. It’s a large two-story timber-framed and plastered building facing east, with a steep roof covered in old red tiles, hipped to the north. A two-story, attic cross wing is situated at the south end, with a gablet at the rear but gabled to the road, displaying exposed timber framing above the ground floor where it was formerly jettied. The front of the house has renewed panelled pargetting. A large old red brick chimney with crowstep decoration stands against the south wall of the cross wing, complemented by a central chimney on the hall range; parts to the north of this central chimney are modern.

The original part of the house comprises a short hall with a chamber above, both served by the large central chimney, reconstructed in the mid-17th century. Also present is a fine 16th-century two-bay cross wing with elaborate decoration projecting to the east. This cross wing originally contained a stair in its southwest corner, and the upper floor was divided by a central cross partition. The front of the building exhibits close-timbering, and features an original square oriel window with renewed mullions in the 19th century, featuring a hollow-and-roll moulded base to a plastered cove, and a 19th-century bargeboard pierced with a running scroll. A small, three-light diamond mullioned window is found on the south return. A four-light window of a similar design, with surviving shutter-bearers at the top and bottom, illuminates the attic space in the front gable. In the west room of the cross wing on the first floor, head mortices suggest a former three-light window with a shutter groove, now replaced around 1600 by a four-light mullioned and transomed oriel window with ovolo moulded members and sunk-panelled corner posts. The eastern oriel retains a shutter groove suggesting originality. A 19th-century four-light mullioned and transomed oriel, featuring similar ovolo moulding, is located on the rear wall of the cross wing's ground floor, while a similar three-light oriel illuminates the chamber above the hall. Modern diamond-leaded casements are elsewhere.

The entrance is into the hall, revealing exposed axial beams and joists of the floor structure above, and a wide fireplace with a heavy, late 16th-century moulded lintel. The chamber above the hall has a segmental arched, chamfered brick fireplace with rounded back corners, and a straight tension brace in the rear wall. The roof is a clasped purlin roof, and it was likely reconstructed in the 17th century. A fine doorway in the southwest corner of the hall leads into the cross wing, featuring a four-centred arched head with sunk spandrels decorated with a ball. Exposed chamfered and stopped joists and beams in the cross wing indicate the position of the former eastern jetty. A facing board to the fireplace lintel, dating to around 1600, is carved with a guilloche and chip-carved paterae over two rows of billet moulding. Small-panelled oak wainscotting is also present. The roof construction includes a two-bay clasped purlin roof with curved wind braces, along with a closed truss in the centre over a former first-floor partition, featuring a door at the south end.