Hope Farmhouse

Hope Farmhouse

A farmhouse of late 16th or early 17th-century origin, enlarged and refurbished in the early 18th century, with a new parlour wing added in the early 19th century. The building faces east-northeast towards the lane.

The main block is constructed in Flemish bond brick with decorative use of burnt headers, though parts to the rear are timber-framed behind weatherboarding. The house has brick stacks and chimneyshafts and a peg-tile roof.

The original house consisted of two heated rooms with possibly a single-storey service room to the right. The plan follows a 3-room lobby entry arrangement, with the right end room unheated and probably serving as a service room, the centre as the former kitchen, and the left as the former parlour. An axial stack between the kitchen and parlour serves back-to-back fireplaces. In the early 18th century, the service room was incorporated into the main block and the front framing was replaced with brick. At this time, a stair block was added to the back of the parlour under a roof parallel to the main block, and a one-room plan bakehouse block was built at right angles to the main block to the rear of the kitchen. This bakehouse has a large projecting outer lateral stack and until around 1950 had a large oven projection. In the early 19th century, a 2-room plan parlour crosswing was added to the left (south end), projecting very slightly forward from the main block, with an axial stack between its rooms.

The house is two storeys with attics in the roofspace of the main block.

The main block has a regular but asymmetrical front with four windows on the ground floor and one on the upper floor. The ground floor windows are 19th-century 16-pane sashes, while the first floor has 12-pane (4/8) sashes. The front doorway is left of centre, containing a part-glazed 6-panel door in a panelled doorcase under a shallow flat hood on pairs of shaped timber brackets. All front windows have rubbed gauged brick arches. The main block roof is half-hipped at each end, with a 17th-century staggered chimneyshaft. The early 19th-century parlour crosswing is slightly taller than the main block and has 12-pane sashes, with tripartite sashes in the left end wall. The crosswing roof is hipped at each end.

The rear of the house is partly weatherboarded and contains 19th and 20th-century casements, the older ones with glazing bars. The right (north) end wall of the main block has the oldest windows in the house, with casements on each floor containing rectangular panes of leaded glass.

The interior of the late 16th or early 17th-century section of the main block is well-preserved. The beams on each floor are chamfered with scroll stops, and the roof is carried on tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins and large curving windbraces. The fireplaces are blocked by 20th-century grates. The winder stair from the first floor to the attic is original. The present main stair dates from the early 18th-century improvements and is a straight flight with a balustrade of turned balusters with blocks, though the newel post may be a replacement.

The bakehouse block has plain chamfered crossbeams, with the roof inaccessible. The fireplace is blocked, but its large size is apparent, and its chamfered oak lintel is exposed.

The house contains early 18th-century joinery details, notably a built-in wardrobe cupboard on the stair landing with fielded panel doors on H-hinges and a moulded cornice. The early 19th-century parlour crosswing contains moulded plaster cornices and panelled doors.