Mengham Farmhouse

This is a house, formerly a farmhouse, dating to approximately the late 16th or early 17th century. It has been altered in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The house is timber-framed with roughcast rendering, and has a plain tile hipped roof. Brick axial and end stacks are present.

The original plan comprised three rooms, with a service room to the east; it originally featured a smoke-bay, likely with an open hall, which was later floored in the 17th century. A stack was inserted into the smoke-bay in the later 17th or 18th century, creating a lobby entrance at the front and a winder staircase alongside the stack at the rear. An outshut was added to the rear in the later 18th or early 19th century, along with a large oven at the east end. A late 20th-century wing extends to the rear left.

The south front is asymmetrical, with four windows. It features 2- and 3-light casement windows with glazing bars, three gabled attic dormers with 2-light casements and glazing bars, and a 20th-century gabled porch over the doorway on the right side of centre. A stack is located at the east end, with a large brick bread oven at its base. The roof extends over the outshut at the rear, and a small 20th-century wing is situated on the right.

Inside, timber framing is exposed. The room on the right has a chamfered axial beam, with the middle section scarfed in, and a brick fireplace in the later outshut, featuring a chamfered timber lintel and a large brick bread oven. The hall and inner room to the left are separated by a flamed partition. The hall has chamfered axial beams with hollow-step stops; the inner room has triangular stops and chamfered joists with cyma or hollow-step stops. The hall also includes a large brick fireplace with a chamfered cambered lintel. In the attic, there is exposed wall framing with jowled posts, tension braces, and a wall-plate. The roof structure features queen-post trusses with clasped purlins and wind-braces. The roof space retains smoke-blackening in the smoke-bay, while the common-rafters over the hall appear clean.