Church Farmhouse

SOUTH ELMHAM ST. CROSS TM 38 SW

4/41 Church Farmhouse -

GV II

Farmhouse. Late C15, remodelled in late C16. 2 storeys; 3-cell form. Timber-framed and rendered; clay pantiles. 2 internal chimney-stacks have rebuilt red brick shafts, square, with a raised band and corbelled head. 3- light mid-C20 replacement casement windows with plain glass to lights, 4 to the upper floor, and 3, similar but taller, to the ground floor. Plank door, with a C20 gabled porch roof, supported on brackets. Frame in 5 bays, formerly with a 2-bay open hall and 2 storied ends. The partition wall at the service end has been moved, and the 2 service rooms made into one. The open truss of the hall has a cambered tie-beam supported by arched braces and surmounted by the remains of a plain queen-post truss, but all the rafters were replaced in the late C17 by a butt-purlin roof and it is not clear whether the original roof had a second tier. Its surviving components are smoke-blackened. The inserted stack, between the hall and the parlour, initially heated only the hall, with a second hearth added later: both ground floor hearths have timber lintels. The inserted ceiling in the hall has 2 deep trimmers to the main beam and unchamfered joists. The 2-bay parlour is unusually large and settlement of the gable wall has led to the joists being raised and partly replaced; a blocked stair-trap in one corner; late C17 rebuilding of part of the front wall included the insertion of a 6-light mullioned window. Reversed braces at the corners in the room above.

Listing NGR: TM2999984150