Chelwood

Chelwood

House dating from around 1600 or earlier, with alterations and modifications made in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is constructed with a timber frame, though the ground floor has been largely rebuilt in brick. The front elevation displays brickwork laid in Flemish bond, with red stretchers and burnt blue headers, while the sides and rear use red brick in English Garden Wall bond. The first floor is clad in hung tiles. Doors and windows are predominantly of late 19th and 20th century manufacture, in timber or metal. The roof is covered in tiles.

The building has a rectangular footprint with its front elevation facing east, divided into three bays of approximately equal width. The roof is hipped with gablets. A chimney stack rises through the central bay, emerging through the roof at the centre of the ridge. Below roof level, however, the stack is offset to the east, positioned much closer to the front wall than the rear. Within the roof space the stack is angled, moving from its lower position to align with the chimney on the ridge line.

The interior plan divides rooms on either side of the chimney stack into a double-pile arrangement. Two larger, heated rooms occupy the front (one to the north, one to the south), with two smaller, unheated rooms to the rear (one north, one south). The back room to the south has been opened up to the front room and now contains a straight stair, possibly of 20th century date, running along the back wall. The main door to the house is positioned in the south end wall, opening onto the stair. The opposing door in the north end wall opens into the other back room, formerly a kitchen; this is now a sliding door enclosed by a small flat-roofed store of mid-20th century date. A late 20th century flat-roofed shower room is located to the rear. The first floor plan is similar, with two larger rooms at the front either side of the stack and two smaller rooms at the back, between which sit the stair and landing.

The principal elevation to the east displays an irregular arrangement of windows varying in size and position, with four on the first floor and three plus a door on the ground floor. On the southern half, windows are hinged metal casements with square leaded lights. The brickwork indicates one blocked doorway, possibly original to the timber frame's underbuild, and a second, later doorway now partially infilled to create a window. On the northern half, windows are multi-light Yorkshire sashes. One former window opening has been extended downwards to create a doorway, now filled with a multi-light glazed door; another ground floor window opening has been altered in size.

The rear elevation is even more irregular, displaying a mixture of metal, timber and uPVC windows of varying size and date. The south end wall features the building's current main entrance, a planked timber door with a flat timber canopy supported on shaped brackets, with a small casement window to its right.

The interior joinery is predominantly of 19th and 20th century date, with doors chiefly of plank construction. The principal ground floor features are the back-to-back fireplaces in the central stack. The south-facing fireplace's grate and brick surround probably date to the mid-20th century, but to the left of the chimney breast is a built-in half-height cupboard with shelving alcove above, of probable early 19th century date. The alcove has a three-centred arch front with simple ceiling cornice and moulded impost bands. The north-facing fireplace has a relatively large opening and simple moulded surround and mantle-shelf, with a half-height cupboard to its right; this joinery appears to be of early 19th century date. At ceiling level in the front rooms, parts of the timber frame's mid-rail are visible. Exposed floor joists in the back room to the north are later replacements, probably of 20th century date, and the upper part of a truncated bay post is visible at ceiling level.

On the first floor, the timber frame is exposed in all four outer walls. The frame comprises reasonably substantial scantling with a mixture of curved and straight down-bracing. Heavy jowled posts mark the bay divisions, and those framing the central bay have had the tie beam, which connected them as opposing pairs, cut out to allow the ceiling height to be raised between bay divisions. The pair of posts marking the division between the south and central bay both show evidence of an empty mortise, suggesting a missing down brace or rail.

Only part of the roof structure was inspected. Although it has undergone alteration, it contains a quantity of historic timbers, some appearing to show smoke-blackening. The roof lacks a ridge piece and appears to be of a clasped purlin type. A trimmed collar in the truss to the north of the chimney stack is an unusual feature.