Lower Farm House And Number 2 Lower Yard Cottages

Lower Farm House and Number 2 Lower Yard Cottages is a house that has been converted into two dwellings. It dates back to around 1500, with a stack and floor added in the early 17th century, extensions in the 18th century, and alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building features a timber frame on a brick base and is rendered. It has a steeply pitched machine tiled roof. Originally, it was a three-bay end hall house, with one bay added to the rear. Now, it is all one storey with an attic.

The storeyed bay has a jettied gable end facing the road, with a roughcast ground floor supported by curved brackets to the first floor. In the attic, there is a three-light flush frame casement with a hoodboard, and exposed plates can be seen. The left side of the building serves as the entrance front. On the ground floor, there are recessed plank doors with shaped brackets for hoods in the centre and rear bays. To the left, there is a three-light 19th-century canted oriel on brackets, in the centre a three-light small pane flush frame casement, and to the right a 20th-century two-light window. The building features two and three-light half dormers, some with early leaded lights and raking heads. A ridge stack has been inserted between the hall bays.

The rear gable end has an originally external stack now within a lower one-bay addition, which includes a ground floor casement, weatherboarding, and exposed plates and purlins. The right side of the building, facing the road, has scattered casements and a 20th-century lean-to outshut. Inside, there is a brick and clunch stack, and the first-floor fireplace has a chamfered brick depressed four-centred arched head, above which is an early 17th-century wall painting of three vases with flowers linked by festoons. The interior also features jowled posts and cambered tie beams of large scantling. The building was formerly known as Playstow Farm House.