Wymondley Bury

WYMONDLEY RAILWAY SIDINGS TL 2127 Little Wymondley

11/157 Wymondley Bury 27.5.68 GV I

Manor house, now a farmhouse. Early C14 aisled hall house, floor and chimney inserted in hall in C16, brick cased and W wing after 1908. Timber frame, cased in red brick, steep old red tile roofs. A 2-storeys U-shaped building facing N on a secluded moated site. Wings extend to rear. Aisled construction of 3 bays, the W bay only floored from the beginning, and a 2-storey unaisled E crosswing. 'Raised aisle' construction with truncated arcade posts in open truss carried on transverse beam as at Warden's Hall at Merton College, Oxford. Crown post roofs above. Hall of 2 bays with large stack built in E bay leaving a cross-passage behind it. Parlour is storeyed W bay, ground floor of E wing has C16 service doorways but fine solar on 1st floor. N front has low eaves to central part, 2 storeys E gabled wing, and 2 storeys and attics W wing. Large internal chimney rises through roofslope. Entrance beside E wing by old studded plank door in round arched entrance. Rectangular bay window to RH, shallow canted bay to E wing, 2 small gabled dormers on roofslope and large one over bay window, 3-lights leaded casements to 1st floor. Large projecting chimney on E side of E wing, and internal chimney to S extension of that wing. Bell under timber hood on W wall of W wing. Interior has exposed framework of the aisled hall with herringbone pattern timber infill to close-spaced studs at upper and lower ends of hall. Cellar below W bay with alcoves in walls. Heavy C16 fireplace beam in hall has chamfered and roll mouldings. Recessed with shouldered lintels at 2 levels in back of fireplace. Hall floor carried on 2 chamfered longitudinal parallel beams with hollow stops. Massive arcade posts with hollow moulded chin to jowls and square-section straight braces. Moulded caps and bases to the truncated posts of the open truss. Transverse beam is a C16 replacement. Hall central crown-post octagonal with moulded cap and base. Plain crown-posts in end walls. Decorated crown-post in 2-bays E wing. W bay of hall range hipped with gablet. The W wall of the W bay closed by passing braces from aisle wall to tie-beam. Mercer comments that the ambiguous function of the ends in conjunction with the structural details suggests an early date for the building. Mr. Farris says that the documents suggest this is the house called Somerhalle erected after 1373 and before 1400. (RCHM (1911)149: VCH (1912)189: Eric Mercer English Vernacular Houses London (1975)171-1: Pevsner (1977)243: RCHM Typescript: inf Mr. Farris).

Listing NGR: TL2167827074