Paradise Farmhouse

Paradise Farmhouse comprises two distinct parts: a rear wing dating from around 1400, with a 16th-century addition and an early 19th-century front, extended in the late 19th century to create a T-shaped plan. The front block is built of red brick with a glazed black pantiled roof. It is two storeys high and consists of three bays, with a fourth bay added to the right. Pilaster strips define the quoins. The 19th-century work includes flush-frame sash windows with glazing bars, set under segmental arches. The central doorway has a six-panel door (the upper two panels glazed), panelled reveals, an architrave with ropework fluting, and a cornice. The later bay has narrower sash windows. The rear wing has a timber frame and is plastered, also with a glazed black pantiled roof. It is one-and-a-half storeys high with mainly 19th-century casement windows and one gabled dormer facing south. An internal stack is present, and there is a lean-to on the north side.

The interior of the rear wing reveals a two-bay former open hall with raised-aisle form, together with the solar bay (into which the stack has been inserted) and a one-bay addition. The open truss features slightly jowled arcade-posts, chamfered on their inner faces, with heavy arched braces to the arcade plates and similar braces meeting at the centre. Side ties run from each arcade post to the wallplate. The original tie beam was once topped with a king-post, but this, and the ridge piece to which it was braced, are now missing; however, the medieval rafters remain. The bridging beam supporting the arcade posts was formerly supported by buttress-shafted wallposts with moulded caps, one of which survives in a damaged state. Other features from around 1400 include a moulded dais beam, remnants of a hall window, and visible studding, mainly on the upper floor. The hall windows are unusually close to the upper end wall, suggesting a possible internal jetty over the dais. Evidence indicates two additional tie beams were once at the lower end of the hall. An inserted floor has chamfered joists morticed into the original bridging beam. Within the former outside wall of the hall is a 16th-century window with five lights, featuring cavetto mullions and 17th-century diamond-leaded glass, a rare survival. A newel stair is situated near the stack. The front block contains an early 19th-century well stair with stick balusters, a ramped and wreathed handrail, and carved tread ends.