Hills Farmhouse

Hills Farmhouse, Bury Road, Lawshall

A dwelling dating from the 16th century with alterations made in the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries. The building is two storeys with attics and features a central chimney stack.

The house is timber framed and plastered, with a thatched gable roof. It has a rectangular plan.

The west elevation displays an off-centre external brick stack, probably dating to the 18th century, and a small out-shot at ground floor level. Both the first and attic floors have 20th century casements. The north elevation has a brick plinth of 16th century date but is otherwise plain, with 20th century casements to the ground and first floors. The east elevation features a late 20th century single storey extension with a tile-covered pent roof. Above this, the gable is clad in weatherboard with 20th century casements at first and attic floors. The south elevation has a single storey extension with a tile-covered gable roof and weatherboard cladding. At the east end of this elevation is a diamond mullion window with applied fillets.

The interior of the ground floor is arranged as a two-room plan. Both rooms retain close studded walls, intact sole plates and midrails, and substantial wall posts, some of which are jowled. The floor frames have transverse chamfered and stopped bridging beams. Some framing has been ruddled. A large 17th century chimney stack has been inserted with an inglenook fireplace in the east room featuring a substantial bressumer, bread oven and possible curing oven. The north wall frame contains two blocked door openings, possibly later insertions, while a central entrance on the south wall frame may represent the entrance to a screens passage. Several exposed diamond mullion window openings survive, some with shutter grooves. A former stair opening exists in the floor frame of the west room. A 20th century stair to the left of the stack provides access to the first floor.

The first floor retains two tie beams with cranked arch bracing. All rooms preserve intact wall framing including wall plates and studwork. However, the position of the base of the rafters suggests the roof pitch has been altered. The axial bridging beam, of thinner scantling, dates to the 18th century. The roof structure comprises coupled common rafters with collars and clasped purlins. Some rafters are believed to be smoke-blackened. The west gable end framing has been replaced.

The building appears on a map of Lawshall dated 1611 and is referred to in documentary sources of 1547 and 1567 as a freehold farmhouse called 'Hille's'. The earliest phase is thought to be a two-bay dwelling with a screens passage, whose roof structure and passage were adapted following the insertion of a chimney, probably in the 17th century. Other interior remodelling occurred at the same time, including the insertion of an internal staircase next to the stack. In the 18th century, a second floor was inserted in the roof to create an attic, and a half-hip was replaced with a gable at the west elevation. The 20th century saw additions to the east and south elevations.