Reading Hall

DENHAM TM 17 SE 4/31 Reading Hall 29.7.55 II Former farmhouse. C16 hall range and early C17 2-cell cross-wing to right forming T-shape plan. Timber framed and roughcast-rendered under a thatched roof. 2 storeys and attics. Mid C20 casement windows without glazing bars. Doorway placed in front gable end of cross-wing: mid C20 door and open porch with wooden trelliswork. Heavy square stack at junction of the 2 ranges; to north the shaft has an inset oblong panel with an upper sawtooth brick course, probably once over a lobby entrance. Intact studding is visible in the upper rooms, the wall braces in the hall range (and probably the cross-wing) halved against the outside of the studs. Plain or slightly chamfered joists, all set flat except for the cross-wing attic floor where they are placed on edge. A ground floor open fireplace in the cross-wing has a semi-circular back. An upper room in the cross-wing has some C17 ornamental plasterwork on the chimneybreast: a central roundel containing foliage and a small foliage motif to each side. Plasterwork in rear gable of cross-wing is painted with the initials 'IR' and the date 1684 (or possibly 1634). Roof over hall range has one row of clasped purlins and a little straight wind bracing: this roof seems to be a C17 replacement.

Listing NGR: TM1940472882