Iden House Iden House, Or Old Swatlands Old Swatlands

House. The core of the house dates to the 15th century, with a substantial extension added in the late 20th century. It is timber-framed, with some exposed framing and plaster infill on a red brick ground floor, and further extensions in red brick. The roof is tiled. Originally a hall house.

The front of the house shows the right return of the original medieval range, with a 20th-century extension to the right and a further 2-storey hipped wing to the rear. To the left is a 2-storey section with a hip-end, and a 1-storey hipped extension. There is a four-light mullioned window on the first floor to the left, and 20th-century casement windows to the ground floor. A boarded door with sidelights is set within a pentice porch.

The left return is two storeys with an attic, topped with a hipped roof, gablets and a central stack. A hipped dormer window is present. A moulded three-light mullioned window is on the left side, alongside three mullioned windows on the first floor and two wooden casements, with a 20th-century bay window on the ground floor.

Inside, the main range appears to have originated as an end-jettied hall house. The left-hand bay (now the rear of the front elevation) has smoke-blackened beams and plaster to the dividing wall of the central bay; however, this end bay may be a later rebuilding. The central bays have a crown post roof with ogee bracing. The right-hand end bay features a moulded crown post, approximately 2½ feet high, set on a hollow chamfered and cambered tie beam with the chamfer running out at floor level. A section of simple pargetted lathe and plaster wall is visible on the exterior wall of this end bay. Ground-floor rooms contain fine double hollow chamfered and fillet moulded beams, and a moulded mullioned window with a hollow chamfer and a triple bead. The outer rear central walls of this range contain a possible 14th-century crenellated and moulded beam with two arched service doorways, which may suggest the surviving range was a cross-wing to an earlier hall, or a later addition. A bay alongside has been reconstructed in the late 20th century from demolished medieval and 17th-18th-century buildings. The upper parlour contains wainscotting dating to around 1700. Bricks in the left return are inscribed "MM ‘90" and "Wm Allwork July…", both dating to around 1800.