Romford House

Romford House is a former farmhouse, likely dating from the mid 17th century, with significant alterations and modernization occurring around 1920-1930. The original section is timber-framed, with a ground floor rebuilt in later Flemish bond red brick incorporating some burnt headers. The later section replicates the brick style, although the original sandstone footings of the earlier structure remain visible. Brick stacks and chimney shafts are present, and the roof is covered in peg tiles.

The house has a roughly L-shaped plan. The main block faces north and originally comprised four rooms, though layouts have shifted with later additions. The original kitchen was located on the east side, alongside a large entrance hall containing the staircase. An axial stack positioned between these two rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces. To the centre-right is a parlour, also backed by an axial stack. A small, originally unheated room at the west end was later combined with the parlour by removing the partition. A dining room was added to the rear of the kitchen. The kitchen, dining room, and front porch are all later additions, dating from the 1920s and 1930s, which modernized a previously smaller, three-room house with a lobby entrance. Initially, only the central room was heated, with smaller, unheated rooms flanking it.

The house is two storeys high, with attic space in the roof.

Externally, the front elevation is irregular, featuring seven ground floor windows and three first floor windows, all replacements from the 20th century with leaded glass panes. A projecting three-window entrance porch, built as a lean-to, marks the centre of the front, with a large, hipped-roof dormer above lighting the stair landing. A 20th-century plank door is set within the porch, with another door providing access to the kitchen to the left. The main roof is half-hipped at both ends. The rear wall displays the blocked jambs of the original lobby entrance doorway; it is the only visible original timber framing on the exterior.

Internally, significant portions of the 17th-century timber framework remain, particularly above first floor level, where studs and large curving tension braces are exposed. The principal room on the ground floor features a much-mended brick fireplace with a plain oak lintel. There is a chamfered axial beam with elongated scroll stops, similar to that on the first floor. Original socket holes in the underside of the main beams indicate the former arrangement of partitions. Two doorways originally led from the main room, one to the original staircase. The west end, previously divided into a buttery and dairy, had a connecting doorway between them. The left service room has plain joists. An unusual rail across the original west end wall is positioned below first floor level, displaying a chamfered underside, its purpose undetermined. The roof structure consists of four uneven bays, featuring jowled wall posts and tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins and queen struts.