French House

French House is a house dating from the 15th or early 16th century. It was restored around 1930 by H. Charlton Bradshaw for Sir Philip Sassoon, with further restorations in 1953 and 1985. The house is timber framed with rendered infilling and has a plain tile roof. It features a Wealden design, consisting of two roughly equal-length hall bays and storeyed end bays. The building has two storeys and is set on a stone plinth.

The close-studding is broadly spaced, and there are tension braces to the first floor of the left end bay, along with arch braces to the flying wall-plate and a later brace to the central tie-beams. The left end bay jetties to the front, gable end, and rear on moulded dragon posts, while the right end bay jetties to the front and gable end on a plain dragon post. The roof is hipped, and there is a multiple brick ridge stack at the junction of the hall and left end bay, as well as a projecting stone stack with brick dressings and diagonally-set brick flues at the right gable end.

The fenestration is irregular, featuring three leaded casements: one 4-light wood mullion window in the left end bay, a broad 2-light window in the left hall bay (above a 3-light ground-floor metal casement), and a 2-light casement in the right end bay. There are also leaded French doors with a 4-centred-arched wooden architrave at the right end of the right hall bay, and a ribbed door with a similar architrave at the rear of the left end of the left hall bay. A long rear wing, built around 1930, has a stone ground floor, timber framed first floor, and a plain tile roof. The interior has not been inspected. The house is noted to have slipped several feet during a landslide in the 1730s.