Poplar Farmhouse

Poplar Farmhouse is a timber-framed and plastered farmhouse dating to circa 1400, with a late 16th-century cross-wing added to the left, creating a T-shaped plan. It has a thatched roof. Originally a 3-cell open hall house of a rare single-ended Wealden form, the solar end is jettied at first-floor level to the front. The wallplate of the recessed portion features embattled decoration below a hollow chamfer. The original house comprised four bays; the service end likely had no upper floor and was built as a single open room with a long hipped roof. Remaining traces of a cross-entry doorway are in the lower bay of the open hall, and a beam with embattled ornament is in the service partition. Evidence suggests diamond-mullioned hall windows were originally present. The open truss has a cambered tie beam from which arched braces have been removed. The roof is of raised-aisle form, with jowled queen-posts arch-braced to arcade plates and collar; braces to the arcade plates are solid. The collar carries a central king-post, braced in two ways to a deep-narrow ridge piece. This combination of queen-posts and a king-post is rare, with comparable examples at The Vicarage, Hoxne, and Willow Farmhouse, Chippenhall Green, Fressingfield. Approximately one fifth of the original hall rafters remain, along with the plastered lower gable-end wall. All original components are heavily sooted. A main stack was built in the upper end of the hall in the later 16th century. A floor was inserted at this time, featuring closely-spaced plain joists, and a partition screens the cross-passage. The cross-wing, originally possibly intended as a barn or granary, now serves as living accommodation and its frame has been altered. C19 casement windows are present, along with a C19 six-panelled raised and fielded door leading into the hall. Two ridge stacks have rendered shafts.