26, Hungry Hill

House. Dating to around the late 17th century, it was extended in the 19th century and restored in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of flint rubble with red brick dressings, brick dentil eaves, and a moulded brick plinth. It has a pantile roof with gabled ends and brick gable end stacks. The original layout comprised a small two-room plan house facing east, with the larger, south room heated by a large gable end fireplace and the smaller, north room having its own gable end stack, although this might be a later addition. A straight staircase was inserted in the 20th century, linking the rooms with a front entrance lobby, and it is said that there was previously a winder staircase near the large south end stack. A single-storey wing was added in the 19th century to the rear of the south room, alongside a pair of cottages adjoining the north end of the property. The east front is asymmetrical with two 19th-century 16-pane sashes on the first floor and two large 20th-century 16-pane sashes on the ground floor, all within segmental brick arches. A 20th-century flint and brick porch sits centrally, and a broad buttress is visible on the right-hand corner with weathered brick set-offs. The rear west elevation features 20th-century casements, some blocked openings, a brick buttress to the left, and a single-storey flint and brick wing with a gable-ended black pantile roof. The south gable end displays diaper brickwork high in the gable, features 20th-century casements, and has a 20th-century conservatory. The north gable end adjoins a 19th-century pair of cottages with a lower roofline. The 20th-century alterations to the interior include the replacement staircase, but the large south room retains a chamfered axial beam with bar-fluted stops, and a stopped chamfer half-beam above the brick fireplace, which has a large oak lintel with a scratch moulding on the lower edge. A chamfered ceiling beam is present in the chamber above, and reused timbers are used as joists. The original late 17th-century roof structure is a 4-bay principal rafter roof, with straight collars and halved lapped dovetail joints to the principals, which are morticed and tenoned at their apices with two tiers of tenoned purlins. The principals and common rafters are set on large timber wall-plates. Some original common rafters remain, though are reused, and there is now a ridgeboard.