Searles Stonewall

Searles and Stonewall is a former farmhouse, now divided into two dwellings, located in Langton Green. The building is late medieval in origin, probably dating from the late 15th century, with early 17th-century improvements. It was partly rebuilt and substantially enlarged around 1900 in an attractive Arts and Crafts vernacular style, with further modernisation dating from around 1980.

The oldest section comprises timber-framing on coursed sandstone footings. The ground floor is underbuilt with Flemish bond red brick containing some burnt headers. The first floor framing is hung with peg-tile, and the gable shows exposed framing. The circa 1900 extensions follow a similar style. Brick chimney stacks and shafts support a peg-tile roof.

The original plan consists of a large house facing west with a two-room arrangement: a hall to the left and a former parlour (now used as a kitchen) at the right end. An axial stack between these rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces and a lobby entrance. The service end was completely rebuilt around 1900 as a crosswing projecting forward and backward, with additional rooms constructed behind the old hall at the same time. These extensions tripled the house's original size. The crosswing's front contained a drawing room with other principal rooms to the rear. Today only the hall and parlour section survives from the original building. The old part belonging to Searles includes the medieval section plus the circa 1900 addition behind the hall and a circa 1980 lean-to on the southern side of the northern crosswing's front projection. Stonewall occupies the remainder. The house rises two storeys with attics in the roof space.

The front of Searles displays an irregular two-window front of circa 1900 casement windows with rectangular leaded glass panes. However, the first-floor window at the right end, serving the chamber over the former parlour, features a restored 17th-century oriel window of five lights with ovolo-moulded mullions, flanked by blocked ribbon windows. The jettied gable has a 17th-century moulded bressummer supported on acanthus consoles, with carved pendants below plain bargeboards flanking the gable. The front doorway is left of centre. The original front lobby entrance doorway had been blocked around 1900 but was reopened around 1987 with a new door and gabled porch. A circa 1900 doorway in the right end wall sits under a gabled hood on shaped struts. The main roof is hipped at both ends and includes two hip-roofed dormers. The circa 1900 extensions present an irregular series of gables, some jettied and some with small half hips. The original circa 1900 main doorway to the crosswing's north side features a wide gabled porch. All windows throughout are ovolo-mullioned with rectangular leaded glass panes.

Interior work predating 1900 is confined to the front block of Searles. The large two-bay hall retains its medieval roof of common rafter trusses with a central open tie-beam truss featuring chamfered arch braces. If it originally incorporated a crown post arrangement, this has been removed. An early 17th-century crossbeam floors the hall, clasping the medieval arch braces. It is chamfered with step stops, and sockets along its soffit suggest it was formerly the headbeam of a partition. The northern bay is now open to attic level. The hall fireplace is lined with 20th-century brick, but its chamfered Tudor arch oak lintel is original, dating from the early 17th century. Similar fireplaces serve the parlour and the chamber above it, the latter being smaller. Alongside the fireplace, an oak two-centred arch doorway leads to a newel stair rising alongside the stack. This doorway appears too early for the early 17th century and may have been reset. The parlour ceiling spans three axial bays on ovolo-moulded beams with chamfered and scroll-stopped joists. The rear bay was formerly partitioned off, presumably as a buttery. The chamber above is now open to the roof, although the main beams that formerly carried the attic floor remain, chamfered with scroll stops. The roof appears to comprise three bays of tie-beam trusses with clasped purlins and raking struts, though it has undergone some repair.

The circa 1900 extensions incorporate reused timbers and include a good straight-flight stair rising between square panelled framed walls, with posts that rise over the first floor landing balustrade and have jowled heads.