Boyke Manor

Boyke Manor

Farmhouse, now house. Timber-framed with plaster infilling, dating to the 15th or early 16th century, with alterations from the 17th century onwards. The building is a Wealden type with an open hall of two timber-framed bays and storeyed end bays, with a fifth bay added to the left in the 17th century or later. It sits on a flint and stone plinth and rises to two storeys.

The timber framing displays broadly-spaced studding throughout much of the structure. The left storeyed bay features a pair of ogee tension braces to its first floor, while the right hall bay has a single tension brace and the storeyed right bay has a pair on each floor. The ground floor of the storeyed left bay is close-studded. The right gable end shows broadly-spaced studding with a central full-height post. A long rail of large scantling, probably the cill of a former hall window, runs towards the base of the left hall bay. Both storeyed end bays project forward as jettied storeys.

The left jetty is supported by a solid-spandrel bracket with an engaged shaft beneath it, featuring a moulded head and worn base. Similar shafts are traceable under the left and central brackets of the right jetty. An arch-braced flying wall-plate runs across the hall. The left hall bay retains a short moulded and brattished rail (likely a transom from the former hall window) at its centre, positioned above jetty level but at the height of the inserted hall floor. To the right of centre, an unusual cantilevered stub beam (possibly 17th century) supports a jowled post that clasps the flying wall-plate.

Infilling includes plaster to the hall and right end at ground floor, painted brick infilling at the same level. Red brick forms the ground floor of the left addition and, with a plat band, covers the entire left gable end. The steeply-pitched hipped roof is covered in plain tiles. Brick stacks are positioned in the left hip (within the added left bay) and as a gable-end stack to the right. Red and grey brick appears in the front slope of the roof at the left end of the shorter right hall bay. A small eaves dormer with a hipped plain-tile roof and three leaded lights sits on the left hall bay.

Fenestration is irregular across five windows: a two-light leaded casement at the left end; a three-light leaded casement to the storeyed left bay; a ten-light mullioned window with hollow-chamfered mullions and a central king mullion to the left hall bay; a four-light window with hollow-chamfered mullions to the left end of the right hall bay; a similar but later four-light window to its right; and a two-light leaded casement to the storeyed right bay. The storeyed left bay includes a rectangular ground-floor bay window on a red and grey brick plinth, with a three-light leaded casement and brick side-pieces. Evidence for former frieze windows survives. A leaded three-light casement flushes with the wall of the left hall bay, beneath which brick plinths of a former bay window remain. A ribbed door with a moulded and brattished strip above occupies the right end of the hall. A short 20th-century rear return wing extends to the right, brick on the ground floor and tile-hung above, with a half-hipped plain-tile roof.

Interior framing is exposed throughout. The left end-of-hall beam is plain, spanning broadly-spaced studding, with a tension-braced central stud supporting the first-floor partition above. The right end-of-hall beam is moulded and brattished, also with a tension-braced partition above. Gunstock-jowled posts are present. An octagonal central crown post with a moulded base and moulded rectangular capital occupies the hall. Ogee foot braces support the plain end-of-hall crown posts. Axial tie-beams extend to the right and left end rooms. A pair of four-centred-arched service doors with hollow spandrels opens from the right end of the hall on the ground floor. The inserted hall floor features a chamfered axial beam and chamfered joists. A moulded stone fireplace with a wooden bressumer is preserved. Four blocked niches appear on the right side of the brick stack on the first floor. The added left bay is almost entirely occupied by a stack, with two triangular-headed niches in the back of the stack to the left and a brick ground-floor fireplace to the right with a chamfered four-centred-arched bressumer and enriched 17th-century wooden overmantel featuring reeded pilasters.