Hill Farmhouse

Hill Farmhouse is a former farmhouse built in two stages during the early 16th century. The hall range dates to around 1530, while the parlour cross-wing was constructed around 1550. The building is timber-framed and plastered, standing two storeys high with plaintiled gable-ended roofs.

The hall range is jettied at first-floor level on its long wall. The cross-wing is end-jettied, with an additional jetty at the gable tie-beam above. The fascia-bressummer supporting the jetties is moulded and carried on brackets with pilaster shafts. Some close-studding remains exposed at ground-storey level.

An axial chimney of red brick in the cross-wing, dating to the early 17th century, has four octagonal flues set on moulded bases in a line. A single octagonal chimney in the hall range is probably a 19th-century reproduction. The cross-wing's ground storey contains exposed studding on the east front with jetty supported on brackets; the remains of carved capitals and moulded shafts run down the front of the posts, with joist-ends tenoned into the bressummer. Original five-light windows with moulded mullions flank a larger blocked central window on the ground storey. The upper storey has a similar window arrangement, though the centre is now a 19th-century three-light casement window, with side-lights extending around to the north and south sides. On the south side, the row of lights was extended in matching style at a slightly later date up to the chimney-stack, though now partly interrupted by a 20th-century casement window. An overhanging tie-beam displays folded-leaf carving; a four-light diamond-mullioned window sits in the apex of the gable. The hall range is jettied along the east side with a small section of exposed studding at ground storey, with similar jetty treatment to the cross-wing.

The exterior entrance comprises a 20th-century gabled plaintiled porch with a boarded door, flanked by windows. To its right is the original blocked front cross-entry doorway with a shallow carved four-centred arched head. Most remaining windows are 19th-century small-pane casements, with two sash windows with vertical glazing bars in the rear ground storey of the cross-wing. Several 16th-century roll-and-cavetto moulded mullions remain exposed and glazed. The rear walls were damaged during the Second World War, and no early features remain there.

Interior: The cross-wing has a complete frame along the north side where it adjoins the hall range, arranged in four bays and initially divided into two apparently unheated two-bay rooms. A chimney-stack with back-to-back hearths at ground and first-storey levels was subsequently inserted into the third bay from the east. The partition wall was then removed, and the jambs of two doorways were incorporated into the brickwork of the stack. Main ceiling beams with double roll-moulding and run-off stops are exposed in both ground-storey rooms. The front upper room has exposed studding, though moulded joists of the ceiling are concealed by later plaster. Many timbers, including the fireplace lintel, bear traces of red ochre colouring. The attics are floored with wide old boards.

The hall range is arranged in two bays, containing only the main frame components which abut the north wall of the cross-wing, with a gap of approximately 12 inches between the two frames. A blocked secondary doorway in the wing's wall once gave access to the rear room, at one time used as a kitchen. The ground-storey ceiling has exposed joists with single roll-mouldings and main beams with double roll-mouldings and leaf stops. The front parlour and chamber above contain extensive ranges of moulded mullioned windows. Back-to-back lintelled open fireplaces in the parlours were inserted around 1600. This range was later divided into two single-bay rooms, and a small chimney-stack was inserted between them with a shaft in imitation of the main stack. There is no surviving indication of original heating in this part of the house. The ground-storey studding of the north wall was removed in the 18th century and a lean-to added. Indications that this wall contained a doorway suggest there may have been a further service bay which the lean-to replaced. There was probably a 16th-century service cell to the right, which was demolished when the present lean-to extension was added.

Roofs over both ranges are in similar style, with clasped purlins and windbraces, and exhibit extensive later strengthening.