Camden House

Camden House is a circa 1500 former open hall house that has undergone significant alterations and rebuilding through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The building is timber-framed and was refronted in the early 19th century with rendered first-floor walls and yellow brick at ground-floor level. It has a high-pitched tiled roof, gabled to the north and half-hipped to the south, with a central brick chimneystack to the south and an external brick chimneystack to the north.

The plan originally comprised a single bay open hall with a solar (a private chamber) at the north end and a chamber above. The service end was likely rebuilt in the 17th century and extended. The front, or east, elevation features a tall, central first-floor tripartite sash window breaking through the eaves with a gable above, flanked by 19th-century casement windows. The ground floor has a central, gabled porch supported on wooden piers, with a six-panelled door. The south elevation has a tile-hung upper floor and galleted stone walling to the ground floor, a mix of sash and casement windows, and a doorcase with a flat hood supported on brackets.

The ground-floor central room, originally the open hall, retains a roll-moulded dais beam, an inserted ceiling with chamfered beams, and a 17th-century fireplace with a wooden bressumer and stone sides. The northern room, initially the parlour, has unchamfered beams and indications of an original partition in the middle. The original access from the parlour to the solar above was via a stepladder, with the trimming still visible on the west side. The south room, representing the former service end, has been completely rebuilt and extended westwards and southwards. A bread oven door, dating to the 1820s and made by Higgs of Lambeth, is present. Access to the upper floor is now via an 18th-century winder staircase with a plank door on pintle hinges.

The upper floor exposes the early 16th-century wall frame, including the original west wall with close-studding and original wooden mullioned windows. The partition walls between the hall and solar display crownposts with two downbraces, collar beams, and curved braces, alongside original sans-purlin rafters exposed in the north room, showing marks indicating a later lath and plaster ceiling. The north end is half-hipped internally. The building is of group value to the surrounding area.