Wards Farmhouse

TM 07 NW THELNETHAM HIGH STREET

2/68 Wards Famhouse

GV II

Former farmhouse. C16 and later. 2 storeys and attics: 3-cell form. Timber- framed on a high brick plinth, unusually stepped in 3 stages. Plastered, with the remains of comb-patterned pargetting in panels. Thatched roof. One internal and one end chimney-stack, both with plain red brick shafts. Small- paned sash windows, mainly tripartite, to each storey. 6-panel led door: raised fielded panels, the top 2 glazed: eared architrave, bolection-moulded frieze, plain flat pediment. A single-storey C18 lean-to along the whole rear, with the central section raised to one-and-a-half storeys in early C19 to provide a stair wing. The interior has exposed timberwork, much of it reused, but the basic house had apparently a 2-cell lobby-entrance plan: the ground storey rooms to each side of the stack have roll-moulded joists and main beams but the room at the south-east end has lighter timbering, and seems to be a C18 extension. The roofs have been renewed. The amount of reused timber is surprising, but indicates the possibility of an earlier house on the site.

Listing NGR: TM0029976852