Burnt Oak

House of 14th-century origin with late 16th or early 17th-century alterations. The left end was rebuilt in the 1930s, possibly following a fire.

The building is timber-framed with rendered infilling pricked in a rectangular pattern. The ground floor of the right hall bay is constructed in red brick in header bond. The roof is thatched. The structure comprises 4 timber-framed bays, with a quasi-aisled hall of 2 timber-framed bays and probably an integral storeyed end bay to the right (north). The front aisle was narrowed and slightly increased in height at a later date, possibly in the late 16th or early 17th century. The storeyed left end bay and most of the left hall bay were rebuilt in the 1930s.

The building is 1½ storeys tall, with gable-end jetties on solid-spandrel brackets and broadly-spaced studding. A higher midrail is positioned to the left of the porch. Arch braces appear at the ground floor of the right end bay and a pair at the ground floor of the right gable end. The roof is half-hipped to the left and three-quarters hipped to the right, with eaves slightly lower to the rear. A brick ridge stack marks the position of the former left hall bay.

Fenestration is irregular. There is one three-light leaded eaves dormer with a thatched gabled roof to the right hall bay, and one small two-light mullioned window with a cill pegged between the aisle wall-post and stud, to the left end of the storeyed right end bay. Three leaded ground-floor windows comprise one two-light to the left end, one four-light to the right hall bay, and one two-light towards the centre of the right end bay. Diamond mullion windows appear to the right gable end: one six-light with a central stud to the first floor and one three-light to the ground floor. A ribbed door is set in a 20th-century timber-framed and rendered porch with a half-hipped thatched roof, positioned under the stack.

The interior displays extensive exposed framing. A base-cruck central truss is present, with an unjointed base-cruck blade to the rear, terminating in a cambered, chamfered tie-beam. This is morticed for a large arch brace. The front end of the tie-beam lies under the arcade plate (reversed assembly) and is supported on a late 16th or early 17th-century jowled post, which is also arch-braced to the tie-beam. The arcade plates are chamfered and continue to the right gable end, carried on arcade posts with shaped jowls at the right end of the hall. At the gable end, the rear arcade plate is supported on an unjointed upper-cruck blade, morticed at its base to the jetty bressumer. The front arcade plate is supported on a late 16th or early 17th-century upper-cruck blade jointed at a point higher than the curve in the rear blade, accommodating the heightened aisle wall plate. The rear arcade plate is morticed for an arch brace to the right hall bay. The front arcade plate continues a short distance into the former left end bay, where it appears to be of lighter scantling. An edge-halved scarf joint with three circular soffit keys or pegs appears in the front and rear arcade plates to the right of the arcade posts.

Broad, close-set axial joists to the right end bay on the ground floor are tenoned into a cross beam at the left end of the bay. The cross beam is tenoned between the rear and late 16th or early 17th-century front aisle wall-posts, which are unusually set immediately to the right of the arcade posts. A stair trimmer is present to the rear right corner of the bay. The front arcade post is chamfered on its front and rear (on the hall side only) and grooved for boarded infilling. The front aisle tie-beam also has a grooved soffit. Pegs for the cross beam are visible between the arcade posts. An arch-braced first-floor partition is positioned above.

A window cill to the rear of the right hall bay is tenoned between the base-cruck blade and aisle wall-post. A (shutter?) groove is present in the soffit of the aisle wall-plate above. An inserted floor to the right hall bay features a heavily chamfered axial beam morticed into a similar cross beam between the base-cruck blade and the front central-truss post, with bevelled joists. A brick fireplace with a wooden bressumer is present. The front ground-floor window of the right end bay is morticed for a three-light diamond mullion window with head and jambs grooved for vertically-sliding shutters (an uncommon feature). The dormer window cuts through the arcade plate and is morticed for a four-light window with moulded or rectangular mullions and diamond subsidiary mullions. The roof was not inspected during recording.

Base-cruck trusses are comparatively rare in Kent. See also Nightingale Farmhouse, Benover Road, for comparison.