Parsonage Farmhouse

Parsonage Farmhouse is a timber-framed farmhouse, now converted to a house, located on the south side of Parsonage Lane in Yalding. The building dates from the mid 17th century with substantial mid 18th-century alterations, additions, and a new façade.

The main structure is timber-framed, comprising five bays arranged to a central-entry plan with a rear stair turret. It rises to two tall storeys and a garret. The ground floor to the left is rendered; to the right it is painted brick. The first floor is clad with channelled, almost rusticated render. The left gable end displays red and grey brick to the ground floor with tile-hanging above. A continuous jetty with a plain fascia-board runs across the front, returned to the left on a dragon beam, and supports an Ionic-modillioned eaves cornice. The roof is half-hipped with plain tiles.

The principal façade is regular, with three windows: a pair of twelve-pane sashes with a central mullion towards each end, and a central sixteen-pane sash, all with open boxes. Two canted ground-floor bays are asymmetrically placed, each containing a twelve-pane bipartite sash with side lights, topped with a moulded wooden cornice with Ionic modillions and a hipped plain tile roof. A half-glazed door is positioned to the right of centre. The mid 17th-century tile-hung rear stair turret projects towards the centre of the rear elevation.

A mid 18th-century rear addition extends to the right, adjoining the stair turret and projecting further than the main range. It features a red and grey brick ground floor in Flemish bond and a tile-hung first floor with a plain tile roof. This addition has one leaded two-light rear casement to each floor towards the left and a slightly projecting red and grey brick stack to the rear towards the right. The right side of the addition contains one bipartite sash and one casement with a segmental head. A brick lean-to with a slate roof runs along the right gable end of the main range back to the addition. A red brick rear lean-to adjoins the main range to the left of the stair turret.

The interior retains significant 17th-century timber-framing. The rear principal posts are of large scantling with long shaped jowls. A 17th-century timber-framed cross partition with two panels per storey stands at the right end of the second bay from the left on the first floor, and another halfway along the fourth bay, aligned with the right side of the stair turret. These originally formed one two-bay room and two rooms of one-and-a-half bays each. The roof structure is a staggered butt purlin roof with collars but no queen struts.

The stair turret spanning the central first-floor room features gunstock-jowled posts framed in large scantling with tension braces and a three-light ovolo-moulded mullion window towards the attic. An open-well staircase within has a moulded handrail, turned balusters, and chamfered newels with shaped finials. Mid 18th-century additions include panelled doors, a moulded skirting-board in the left ground-floor room, moulded cornices, and boxed vertically-sliding shutters with C18 work to the bay window. A mid 18th-century fireplace serves the right ground-floor room. The rear addition contains 18th-century fittings, including a scratch date of 1762 on a rear window.

A brewhouse is attached to the rear right corner of the 18th-century addition. Dating from the mid 18th century, it is a single-storey structure of red and grey brick with a brick plinth, dentilled eaves cornice, and pyramidal plain tile roof. A flush red and grey brick rear stack rises from the rear elevation. The single window opening—a three-light leaded casement with a segmental head—faces the front; a door towards the left end of the front elevation communicates with the main house via a single-storey brick lobby.

The brewhouse interior preserves 18th and 19th-century fittings, including a lead pump dated 1767 with the initials TWR, a shallow sink, and a brick floor. A large brick fireplace with a cambered head features smoking hooks, a bread oven, and an adjoining copper-stand. The roof has cross and axial tie-beams, a king post strutted to side purlins, and dragon ties to the corners. The survival of the brewhouse is relatively unusual for this area.