Vanners, Bucklebury Common

Vanners is a vernacular dwelling dating to the 16th or 17th century, with alterations and additions from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is timber-framed with brick elevations and tiled roofs. Historically it comprised two or three rooms, with an 18th-century rear outshot. During the 19th and 20th centuries it was subdivided and extended, then remodelled as a single dwelling in the mid-20th century.

The exterior is a two-storey, three-bay building of red-orange brick, generally laid in Flemish bond, with patches of differential brick where openings have been altered. The gable roof is tiled with two brick ridge stacks without pots; the north stack was probably external until the late-20th century extension was built. An external stack is attached at the south gable end. All windows are 20th-century casements.

The east-facing façade has a mid-20th-century partly glazed brick porch with a gable roof at the north end of the historic building, with a 20th-century panelled entrance door flanked by 20th-century windows. To the north of the porch is a 1974 two-storey extension. Ground floor window openings to the south of the porch have inconsistent segmental heads or 20th-century straight heads. Former doorways to the middle and south cottages are wholly or partly blocked. First floor 20th-century windows close to the eaves have straight heads.

The south gable end and external shouldered 18th-century stack are constructed of narrow red bricks laid in stretcher bond. The stack protrudes above the tiled, pent roof of a 20th-century single-storey weatherboarded addition. A relict queen-post truss and the ends of side purlins are exposed in the gable end. The rear (west) elevation has a catslide roof extending over the outshot. The external wall of 19th-century brick has near-continuous bands of 20th-century fenestration to the centre, with a 20th-century plank door at the north end. Three recessed velux windows are in the rear pitch, and a dormer window has been added at the north end. A two-storey, T-shaped north addition of 1974, built in standard brick, is excluded from the listing.

The interior reveals a pegged and jointed timber frame of large scantling, dating to the 16th or 17th century. At ground floor the frame is replaced with brick at the front (east) elevation and was remodelled during the late-20th-century conversion to a single dwelling. In the north bay, the historic north gable end is dominated by a 19th-century fireplace, to the east of which access leads into the 1974 extension. A mid-20th-century stair has been inserted against the partition with the central bay, necessitating partial removal of the bridging beam; the chamfered axial bridging beam extends from the stair opening to the north wall, with both the beam and floor joists having lambs tongue stops. The partition with the central bay has been partially rebuilt but retains a central post at ground floor and is nearly complete at first floor. At the rear of the north bay are two studs in a partition wall, to the left of which is a blocked doorway with ogee braces to the head. A modern opening leads into the outshot where the original rear wall has been partly removed, its position marked by a wall post; to the left of this is another blocked doorway. The outshot retains a corner post and a partition wall comprising a sole plate on a brick plinth, a midrail and studs. A doorway leads into the outshot at the rear of the central bay; the lower purlin to the catslide roof is encased.

The stopped and chamfered bridging beam continues into the central bay and beyond to the rear of the remodelled former entrance halls to the central and south cottages, where the stopped end abuts the simply moulded bridging beam to the south bay. In the central bay the studs, midrails and wall posts are apparent on the partition cross frame with the north bay, and at the rear where some of the timber frame has been embedded in plaster. A blocked door is apparent at the rear south-west corner of this bay. The partition cross wall to the south is dominated by an inglenook fireplace, much rebuilt with a bresummer. Between the central and southern bays are the former entrance halls of the central and southern cottages; the entrance hall to the central cottage has been enclosed, but the hall to the south cottage has a pamment floor which leads to the back of the building, through the rear wall of the earliest phase and into the outshot where the sole plate, some studs and the lower purlin to the roof are exposed. Although the wall studs were removed when the entrance halls were formed, a midrail with empty mortices and posts marks the position of the earliest partition cross frame. A rebuilt brick partition wall defines the southern bay, where apart from the bridging beam there is no timber frame exposed. An inserted doorway at the rear leads to the back of the bathroom extension where the pegged box frame of the southern gable end is enclosed by a modern cupboard.

At the south-west corner of the southern bay is a winder stair leading to the first floor. The wall plates, corner posts (some jowled), midrails and tie beams are exposed throughout. Modern partitions are inserted in the north bay to create corridors and bathrooms, but the earliest partition cross frames throughout the first floor are in situ and have substantial arched braces. The position of the doorways in the cross frames is original; those at the north end of the building having chamfered heads. In the central and northern bays, wide floorboards remain. The roof structure comprises a simple A-frame, pegged at the apex, with exposed side purlins and windbraces. The outshot has a timber frame of lighter scantling, with an exposed wall plate, posts and tie beams.