Tudor House

This is a Tudor house, originally built in the 15th or early 16th century with a south crosswing, and later altered in the mid-17th century when the main hall range was rebuilt. A rear outshut was added around 1700. The crosswing is timber-framed with flint and brick sills, showing exposed timber with red brick infill on the south and west sides, and close-studding to the ground floor. The rest is roughcast, except for the front (east) of the hall range, which is red brick on the ground floor. The roof is covered in steep old red tiles.

The house is T-shaped, facing east, comprising the original two-cell crosswing and a two-storey, two-cell hall range with a rear outshut replacing an earlier open hall. A lobby entrance is on the east side, next to the crosswing, with an internal chimney. There are three windows on each floor. The windows are flush casements with small panes or rectangular leading, with two lights except for a three-light window to the right of the boarded double doors at the entrance. An unusual feature is a post with a curved bracket at the southeast corner of the jetty, instead of a dragon-post. The jettied south side has two blocked original windows in the ground floor close-studding. The rear outshut has a catslide roof, along with four windows and a door.

A 20th-century entrance and lean-to porch are located at the rear of the wing, and a dark weatherboarded top covers the gable. The north end of the hall range has a central post, jowled corner-posts, a mid-height jointed inline, and close studding to the ground floor. A window on the first floor has been altered with glazing inserted between the studs.

Inside, exposed timbers are visible, revealing that the jetty of the south crosswing has an unusual construction with short joists supporting most of the east side. Originally unheated with two rooms per floor, the interior features axial beams, a dragon-beam to the front corner, convex stops to chamfers on the beams, and collar-beam trusses at the middle and east gable, which are parts of a collar-purlin roof, largely rebuilt. A large internal chimney added in the early 17th century heated only the ground floor east room, with a fireplace for the chamber above added later in the 17th century. The original stair position is uncertain. A first-floor fireplace has a three-centre arched chamfered head and stopped jambs. Recessed areas are present in the ground floor parlour’s fireplace, with a chamfered timber lintel. The hall range fireplace has two recessed areas at the back with shouldered tops. The first floor was ceiled over in the early 18th century when a fireplace was added to the chamber above the hall. A chimney was built in the early 19th century in the north room, which was originally unheated. The main room is distinguished by chamfered and stopped joists, and an axial beam. The axial beam to the north room has two bars to its stops, an unexplained detail. The roof is a clasped-purlin design with long, straight wind-braces. Earlier sections were not structurally linked to the wing.