The Old Butchers

THE OLD BUTCHERS

A house, formerly incorporating a butchers shop, standing on Bird-in-Hand Street in Old Groombridge. The building dates from the mid-17th century and was substantially refurbished, enlarged and rearranged in the early to mid-18th century, with later modernisation in the 19th and 20th centuries, the most recent following a fire in 1989.

The ground floor is built in Flemish bond red brick with burnt headers on a coursed sandstone plinth. The remainder of the structure is weatherboarded timber-framing, with a section hung with peg-tile, and features a brick stack and chimneyshaft beneath a peg-tile roof.

The house is two storeys with attics in the roofspace and a cellar beneath the parlour. It faces east-north-east onto the Green with a double-depth plan, two rooms wide and two rooms deep. An axial stack between the two front rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces: the parlour to the left (south) and kitchen to the north, with smaller service rooms to the rear. Two front doorways provide direct access to each front room, both now located behind a large front porch that was formerly used as a shop. The present layout is essentially that of the early to mid-18th century, although part of the building is mid-17th century. The mid-17th century building appears to extend to at least the right (kitchen end) front and back room, possibly returning across the front. During building works in January 1989, a blocked 17th-century front doorway was uncovered; it is now blocked by the present stack.

The nearly symmetrical two-window front contains mostly 19th and 20th-century casements with rectangular panes of leaded glass, though some frames are earlier—notably the ground floor left window, which has an 18th-century flat-faced mullioned oak frame. The large central weatherboarded porch has a hipped roof and a doorway in its right side containing a 20th-century plank door with cover-strips. To the left of the porch, the brick ground floor wall returns across the front only a short distance; the window here is contained in a weatherboarded timber-framed section. Although the ground floor section to the right of the porch is entirely brick, a straight joint indicates this end was originally similar. The main roof is gable-ended with two hip-roofed dormer windows. At the right end, parallel roofs with M-profile and attics contain 12-pane sashes.

The interior preserves notable 17th and 18th-century work. The 17th-century front doorway, now blocked by the 18th-century stack, is oak with an ogee-moulded surround. First floor framing temporarily exposed during building works shows close-studding with internal curving tension braces. The parlour is lined with large-field 18th-century panelling in two heights and includes a contemporary corner cupboard. Its fireplace is blocked by a later one, and the axial beam is chamfered. The former kitchen contains a large fireplace with original oak lintel, though its sides have been relined. A plain chamfered crossbeam and similar axial beam to the rear are present. The first-floor chamber above the parlour has fielded panel wainscotting, somewhat rearranged around a 20th-century chimneypiece. The front and back rooms above the kitchen side contain chamfered crossbeams with step stops, possibly 17th-century. The rear end wall posts of the right rooms face inwards, suggesting a crossroof end onto the street from the original 17th-century house. The present roof—an M-section roof parallel to the street, probably 18th-century—was severely damaged by fire in late 1988, and at the time of survey most of its structure had been plastered over. A winder stair behind the stack is probably 18th-century.

The Old Butchers is an attractive and well-preserved house. Its significance is enhanced by its position within a group of equally well-preserved buildings that comprise Old Groombridge.