Foxella

Foxella is a house with origins in the 16th century or earlier, substantially remodelled and extended around the mid-17th century. It is located in Brenchley.

The building is constructed with a timber frame, the ground floor of the front elevation underbuilt in brick and the first floor tile-hung. The rear outshut is weatherboarded on brick footings, and the right return is also weatherboarded. The roof is covered in peg tiles with a brick stack.

The original plan was a 2-cell arrangement with a lobby entrance, probably featuring a framed stack or smoke bay. The larger room to the left (south) was paired with a probably unheated service room to the north. A brick stack was inserted in the 16th century. Around the mid-17th century, the house was extended with a one-room parlour addition at the south end, heated by an end stack. The roof was raised by approximately half a metre at this time, and a high-quality heated chamber was provided over the centre room. The rear outshut may have been added at the same time. The house was later divided into three cottages. The present entrance is into the outshut at the left (south) end.

The exterior shows two storeys and an attic beneath a gable-ended roof. An axial stack to the right of centre features staggered shafts. The asymmetrical six-window front has brick underbuilding in three different sections with straight joints. Windows are of various sizes (2-, 3- and 5-light casements) dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. The right-hand first floor window is set well below the eaves and is probably set within an original 16th-century embrasure. A gabled attic dormer is present. The rear outshut has 20th-century small-pane casements. A recessed porch with a modern timber door is situated on the left (south) return.

Interior carpentry is well-preserved, with exposed crossbeams and joists to the centre and left-hand rooms, the details differing in character. The left-hand room features a main beam with run-out stops, an open fireplace, a 17th-century ledged door, and evidence of a former 2-light mullioned window (now internal) on the rear wall. A former stair is evidenced rising against the party wall shared with the centre room. The centre room contains a massive chamfered step-stopped crossbeam and a large open fireplace with brick jambs and an oak chamfered and step-stopped lintel. The small right-hand (north) room has exposed joists, most of which appear to be re-used. The wall framing survives intact down to the sole plate of the rear wall, with wall posts featuring flared jowls. The wall posts to the left (south) end room are taller and more smoothly finished, standing approximately half a metre above the others; these have been extended to the level of the 17th-century wall plate by a series of additional posts. The 17th-century wall plate is chamfered and scroll-stopped on either side of the tie beams. A blocked 3-light mullioned window is present on the rear (west) wall. The chamber over the centre room features an intersecting beam ceiling that extends the full width of the house. This room has been reduced in size by the introduction of a first-floor passage along the long axis. The chamber contains a fine 17th-century fireplace with a chamfered lintel and 17th-century wall cupboards with doors constructed from large planks. Evidence of a former frame immediately north of the stack, and mortises for former joists in the attic floor, suggest that the stack is an insertion.

The roof structure employs tie-beam, queen strut and clasped purlin design with some struts removed, and includes intermediate birdsmouth ties. The roof over the south end room is of similar design but with more slender timbers and stands at a higher level.