Abbots Mead

PETTAUGH EARL SOHAM ROAD TM 15 NE 4/132 Abbots Mead

• II

Former farmhouse, c.1500. 2 storeys. A 3-cell open hall house. Timber- framed and plastered. Thatched half-hipped roof; an axial late C17 chimney of red brick (recapped in C19), and two C19 end chimneys. Mid C20 oak casements with leaded lights. C20 plaintiled gabled entrance porch with boarded door. The 2-bay open hall has an open truss with a cambered tie-beam, the arch- braces chamfered and springing from shafts with well-moulded capitals. Complete smoke-blackened coupled-rafter roof. Good close studding, with convex arch windbracing at the corners. One blocked rear cross-entry doorway has a 4-centred arched head. Some original diamond-mullioned windows. Unusually prominent assembly marks. Heavy unchamfered floor joists at the parlour end, and an early ladder stair. Both end walls of the open hall originally had infill omitted at high level, permitting heat (and smoke) into the end chambers. A fireplace was placed against the cross-entry in C17 and an upper floor of chamfered joists was inserted in the hall. C19 alterations include a single-bay extension to left. Formerly known as Valley Farmhouse.

Listing NGR: TM1743059809