Bonds

This is a former farmhouse dating from the late 16th century, with extensions added in the 17th century, and renovated around 1960. It is timber-framed, with the ground floor largely underbuilt with 20th-century red brick, although some timber posts do descend into the brickwork. Much of the framing is exposed, but some is covered with peg tiles. A brick stack and chimneyshaft are present, and the roof is covered with peg tiles.

The house has a roughly L-shaped plan. The main block faces uphill to the northeast and originally comprised three rooms. A 1960 modernization divided it; an unheated room is at the northwest end, a heated room in the center, and a kitchen with an entrance lobby and the main staircase to the rear. A one-room block projecting at right angles behind the left end has its own stack.

The original late 16th-century house occupied the two-room section of the main block – the former living room and an unheated service room. In the 17th century, the original living room was converted into a kitchen, and a new service room was added at the right end, divided by an axial beam, alongside a parlour wing to the rear. Some time later, the farmhouse was divided into cottages but was reunited around 1960.

The exterior has an irregular three-window front with 20th-century timber-framed windows containing iron-framed casements with rectangular panes of leaded glass. The left two bays of the framing are from the late 16th century and have curving tension braces, while the right bay is the 17th-century extension. The roof is gable-ended to the right and hipped to the left. The right gable-end wall frame is exposed at ground floor level. A ground-floor window is enlarged from a pair of 3-light service windows with diamond mullions. Other sides are similarly styled, with tension braces and a concave brace in the parlour wing. The parlour wing was extended slightly around 1960, and its roof is slightly taller than the main block’s roof. A 20th-century plank door with coverstrips is set in the left end of the front facade.

The interior was modernized around 1960, but the framed structure is largely original, although some joists have been rearranged, particularly in the entrance hall and former parlour. The main block kitchen features an axial beam and joists, all chamfered with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, and a large brick fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel and a low Tudor arch. The parlour fireplace has a sandstone surround with a chamfered oak lintel. The roof structure is largely covered with insulation, but the original structure is believed to survive, employing a side purlin construction.