Former Enham Alamein Museum and Estate Office

Former open hall house, later converted into a pair of cottages; dating from around 1550, with alterations and extensions from the 17th and 18th or early 19th centuries, and adapted as a museum and offices in the later 20th century.

The building is constructed with a timber frame, featuring exposed framing with rendered panels or painted brick infill in the southern half, while the northern half is clad or replaced in painted brick. It has a brick chimney stack and a thatched roof.

The plan comprises two cells or bays of what was originally a three-cell house aligned roughly north to south; the southern parlour bay has been demolished. The current southern bay was originally an open hall, later floored over to create a one-and-a-half storey building. A timber chimney was initially inserted here, followed by a brick stack in the 17th century, with a winder stair constructed against it. A blocked doorway in the west wall opposite the stack, aligned with the chimney, indicates that the stack was inserted at the lower end of the hall, creating a lobby entry plan. The house was subsequently divided into two cottages, with stairs added against the stack in the northern cell in a similar position to the earlier stair. A lower half-bay, also one-and-a-half storeys with a half-hipped roof, was built to the north, probably in the late 18th or early 19th century.

The timber framing displays small square panels with mainly brick infill in the outer walls. Where visible, the 16th-century frame shows jowled posts, with the hall bay marked by long curved braces; elsewhere braces are straight. A former window on the west wall is more evident from the interior. In the later 18th or early 19th century, the southern end wall—formerly internal—was infilled with much lighter framing. The building was altered, repaired and extended northwards at this period. The current entrance on the west elevation of the northern cell has a cambered arched head. Windows are 20th-century timber casements; one on the west elevation features a cambered arched head, and some retain diamond lattice leaded lights. Upper floor windows are eyebrow dormers.

Inside, the southern cell and upper floor of the northern cell expose the cill beam, jowled posts and braces on the outer walls and internal cross wall. A substantial jowled post is central to the north wall, now internal. The ground floor spine beam has a 2-inch chamfer with run-out stops. A blocked doorway appears in the west wall opposite the stack.

A smoke-blackened horizontal timber built into the west side of the chimney connects to a rafter on the east roof slope, where it supports a section of brick chimney above. Its purpose is not fully understood: it may be reused from the original timber chimney, or remain in situ from it, incorporated to strengthen the inserted brick stack or later additions to it.

The building roof is a queen post truss with clasped side purlins and straight wind-braces. Wattle and daub infill appears in the truss at the northern end of the hall below the collar. The hall roof is smoke-blackened.

Within the roofspace, an inserted collar between the purlins lies approximately at the centre of the bay. Mortices on its top and bottom faces strongly suggest it formed part of a timber chimney. On the east side of the roof north of the collar, within the chimney space, there is sooted lath and plaster lining on the underside of the rafters, encasing the purlins and wind-brace and returning on the north side of the inserted collar. This represents the remains of the timber chimney lining.