Ashmede

Ashmede is a house dating to the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with a circa 1930s addition. The house is framed construction, with the ground floor underbuilt in brick in two phases. The brickwork is primarily Flemish bond with blue headers. The first floor is tile-hung, and the roof is covered in peg tiles. A brick stack is present.

The house faces north and has a three-room lobby entrance plan. The two right-hand (west) rooms comprise a hall in the centre and a parlour to the right, heated by back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack. An unheated service room is at the left (east) end; the partition between this room and the hall has been removed. A circa 1930s one-room plan addition extends to the left (east) end. Outshuts extend to the rear of the parlour on the right and to the right end.

The exterior is asymmetrical with four windows on the front. The roof is hipped at the left end and half-hipped at the right end. The stack features staggered triple shafts with a corbelled brick cornice. A 1930s plank door is located to the right of centre, leading to the lobby entrance. The brick underbuilding beside the door to the right (west) is earlier than the brickwork to the left. The 1930s additions include 2-light iron-framed casements with diamond leaded panes: four to the first floor, three to the ground floor, and one to the right end outshut. A 1930s timber-framed porch is on the left (east) return. The rear elevation retains a circa early 17th century 3-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window on the ground floor, illuminating the service room.

The interior retains well-preserved carpentry and joinery. Ceiling beams feature scroll and step stops on the ground and first floors. The hall fireplace has a chamfered lintel and rebuilt jambs, while the parlour fireplace has a chamfered lintel and a crossbeam close to the lintel. Several 17th-century plank doors remain on the first floor, and the chamber above the hall has an open fireplace with a chamfered lintel and brick jambs. The wall framing includes flared jowls and tension braces.

The roof is a clasped purlin roof, with a probable 18th-century scissor brace added over the east end.

Ashmede is a traditional house of the region, notable for its good interior features.