Tollgate Farmhouse

Tollgate Farmhouse is a late 15th-century farmhouse with alterations dating to approximately 1600 and the late 19th century. It has a cross-passage entrance plan, and was extended at both ends around 1600. The house is two storeys high and built with a timber frame and plaster, with the right-hand gable jettied on exposed knees and moulded pilasters. The roof is covered with plain tiles and has pierced crested ridge tiles and 19th-century bargeboards with undulating soffits. The chimneys are of red brick; one is axial and likely from around 1600, and the other is at the left end and dates to the 19th century. There are three-light 19th-century casement windows, the ground floor windows including square upper lights. The entrance is via a four-panelled 19th-century door set within an open gabled porch supported by timber posts.

The original core of the house was a late medieval open hall house, featuring a pair of arched doorways leading to service rooms and a smoke-blackened crown-post roof, both dating from this period. The open truss boasts an octagonal crownpost with a moulded capital and base, and four-way knee bracing. The tie-beam has lost its arch braces. Above the entrance is a wall-place with fine carvings, displaying a running design interspersed with fleur-de-lys and stylised animals – a style suggesting the late 16th century, although its context is unusual, perhaps representing an apprentice’s work. Around 1600, an upper floor was inserted into the hall, accompanied by a fireplace backing onto the cross-passage, and a parlour was added, possibly at a later date. A two-cell wing was built around 1600 behind the service end and was detached until the 19th century. This wing contains high-quality timber framing, including a butt-purlin roof with wind-bracing, and a large blocked ovolo-moulded mullioned window. The upper floor of the front room displays fine roll mouldings, and the bridging joist is crenellated, indicating work from the early 16th century likely reused from a demolished parlour of the earlier house.