Fishpond Farmhouse

TM 07 SW WALSHAM LE WILLOWS SUMMER ROAD

3/80 Fishpond Farmhouse

II

Former farmhouse. C16, with possibly older core. Timber-framed, formerly rendered, but encased c.1920 in red and white brick, now whitewashed. Clay pantiles. 2 storeys; 3-cell form. An internal chimney-stack with a plain red brick shaft. C20 casement windows, 2-light to the upper floor, 3-light to the ground floor. An enclosed and gabled brick porch with C20 door. A 1½-storey red brick and flint lean-to along the whole rear wall. Frame, exposed inside, in 4 bays, has good studding with long arched braces. To the left of the stack, a one-bay service area, formerly divided into 2, has the remains of 2 flat-headed doorways in the partition wall. In the gable wall at ceiling height is a beam with embattled ornament. Adjoining the service area is a one-bay room with chamfered main beam and a plain timber lintel to the open fireplace. To the right of the stack, a 2-bay parlour with chamfered main beam supported by jowled posts, fireplace with rounded back to brickwork and plain timber lintel, and a 5-light mullioned window in the gable end, the mullions with roll and hollow. A similar window in the upper room, with very damaged mullions, has 3 lights and 2 narrow half-lights. There is no chimney- bay, the stack being entirely within the parlour so that the main ceiling beam is off-centre. The posts which carry this beam have no linking tie-beam above, and appear to be of different timber from the rest of the frame: this truss may be a replacement of a former end truss, for'the unusual layout suggests that the interior has undergone extensive remodelling. The embattled beam, now in the service area, may have been the dais beam of an open hall; if so, the house has a possible medieval core. The studding on the upper rear wall has evidence of replacement, and the remains of a large diamond-mullioned window. The present roof has clasped side purlins without principals or windbraces, and no smoke-blackening. The house stands. in an isolated position, away from the road, and immediately on the parish boundary.

Listing NGR: TM0013472361