Moat Farmhouse

TM 16 NE 4/86

THORNDON HESTLEY GREEN Moat Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. C15 core with C16 and C17 alterations and enlargement. Timber framed, mainly plastered; right gable end of colourwashed brick to eaves level. Pantiled roof. 2 storeys and attic. 3-cell form. 3 windows, C20 mullion and transom casements without glazing bars. One extra mid C20 standard window to ground floor. Lobby entrance with C19 6-panel door (upper 4 panels glazed), architrave and cornice. Internal stack with rendered shaft. Internally the main members of the frame are visible but much of the studding and joists are concealed. C15 work includes moulded and embattled beam against cross-passage and buttress-shafted wallposts, once supporting the central truss over an open hall. C16 plank and muntin screen, partly concealed. Several good C16-C17 doors. In the hall and service cells at first floor level the main posts have deep jowls facing towards the centre of each bay (2 pairs of posts have double jowls), with studded cross-partitions dividing the 3 bays. This unusual arrangement seems to be C16 work and suggests there was once a 3-span gabled roof or triple gablets. The present roof is of side purlin form and probably dates from early C17 when the stack and parlour cell were added. The roof over the hall contains the supporting structure, reminiscent of a post mill trestle, for a central post which once protruded above the ridge. This appears to have been inserted into the present roof and is probably of C17 date. Its precise function is unknown, but it has been suggested it supported a platform overlooking a system of fish ponds which once extended to the south.

Listing NGR: TM1564966708