Yewtree House

Yewtree House is a Grade II* listed house dating from the early 15th century, with alterations made around 1600. It is a three-cell open-hall house with one storey and attics. The building is timber-framed and plastered, featuring a 16th-century set-forward wing on the left, which has attractive cable-pattern pargetting in large panels. The roof is half-hipped and thatched, with axial and internal end chimneys made of red brick. There is one gabled thatched dormer and 19th-century small-pane casements. The entrance includes two boarded doors from the 18th or early 19th century.

Yewtree House is noted for being an unusually complete example of a medieval house. Inside, the cross-entry retains unaltered twin 4-centred arched service doorways and a massive rear 2-centred arched entrance doorway. The original staircase, featuring triangular blocks and a clap-boarded partition, leads from the cross-entry. The roofs in all three cells are exposed and consist of complete coupled rafters. There are blocked open hall windows that show evidence of square mullions. The heavy studwork is widely spaced and includes convex arched wind-bracing.

A significant alteration occurred in the late 16th century when the central arch-braced tie beam of the hall was removed, and a heavy first-floor structure with chamfered joists was added, along with a large chimney at the upper end of the hall. A two-bay wing was also added to the front of the parlour cell during the 16th century, which features a cross-entry and end chimney. This wing is primarily constructed from reused medieval timber, some dating back to around 1300 or earlier. The wall plates show redundant notched-lap joints from this period, although the open truss is likely later, with a strongly cambered tie-beam and heavy chamfered braces that may originate from the 15th century. The house is recognized as a good and exceptionally little-altered example of a rural 15th-century dwelling.