Thorpe Hall Farmhouse

Thorpe Hall Farmhouse

House, formerly farmhouse. A 17th-century timber-framed building with early 19th-century facing, comprising colourwashed render and red and white Flemish bond brickwork, with 19th-century additions in yellow brick and a slate roof. The building is of two storeys with an L-shaped plan.

The entrance front features a projecting bay with a hipped roof at the right, containing a recessed central panel with 2 x 2 pane windows to both ground and first floors, with an ashlar band at the level of the first-floor window sills. To the left of this projecting wing are blank panels with splayed heads at ground and first-floor levels. Further left are three bays, with the central bay containing a door with splayed, cambered head of six panels, the lower two recessed and the upper two glazed, with diamond-shaped panels inset to the central two. Before the porch are etiolated Roman Doric columns supporting a flat-roofed porch with a plain entablature. To either side of the porch are arched single-light windows of mid-19th-century date. Above the porch at first-floor level is a mid-19th-century bull's-eye window with an ashlar surround. To the left of this is a mid-19th-century canted bay window with a 2 x 2 pane sash window to the front and single-light sashes to the angles, featuring an egg-and-dart frieze above the ground-floor windows. To the right at ground-floor level is a further mid-19th-century rectangular bay window containing two sash windows divided by a king mullion, with splayed heads and an egg-and-dart frieze below the parapet which has a moulded saddle-back panel coping. To the first floor within a recessed panel is a 2 x 2 pane sash window. Slightly recessed at the right is a colourwashed, rendered wing of single storey with attic, featuring a 20th-century two-light window to the ground floor and an early 20th-century brick outshut at the right.

The left-hand side of the house has two bays with a bow window to the ground floor at the right with 20th-century windows and 20th-century wrought-iron balustrade above. To the first floor above this is a 2-light casement. An ashlar band divides the ground and first floors and continues across the left-hand canted two-storey mid-19th-century bay, which has a red brick plinth, a central 2 x 2 pane sash window and 1 x 2 pane windows to the angles. An egg-and-dart frieze sits above the ground-floor windows, with similar windows to the first floor and a panelled cornice below the eaves.

The rear elevation is of red brick. At the right is a projecting wing of 19th-century date with French windows to the ground floor and a blank panel at first-floor level above. In the re-entrant angle between this wing and the refaced 17th-century range is a staircase turret with a 2 x 2 pane window to the ground floor and a 2-light mezzanine window to the first floor with an arched head. To the left of this, at ground-floor level, is an outshut with a 20th-century door of six raised and fielded panels and a 6 x 4 pane window. To the first floor are three 3 x 2 pane sash windows. To the ground floor at the left of the outshut is a 3 x 2 pane window with a cambered head and to the far left a lean-to outshut with a hipped roof.

Interior

The ground floor has two ceilings with chamfered beams and plain joists, and one raised ceiling also with chamfered beams and some renewed joists. The first floor contains a room with close-studded walling and a blocked window with a four-centred arch to the hearth. The roof has cambered collar beams.