Old Birchetts Including Front Area Railings

This is an early to mid-17th century house, enlarged in the 18th century and refurbished in the 19th century. It is timber-framed, with a ground floor built of Flemish bond red brick featuring decorative burnt headers; the upper framing is clad in peg-tile. Brick stacks and chimney shafts are present, with the original stack having a base of coursed sandstone. The roof is covered in peg-tiles.

The house is positioned with its end facing onto The Green to the northwest. It originally comprised three rooms: a small front room with a projecting lateral stack on the north side, a larger main living room with an axial stack to the rear, and an unheated rear service room. The front room was originally an unheated service room, with the stack inserted in the 19th century. The rear service room, now a kitchen, was added in the 18th century. It is possible the front room was once a shop, as there are separate doorways to the two front rooms.

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

On the front gable end, there is a central window on each floor. The ground and first floors feature 19th-century 12-pane sashes, and the attic window is blocked with peg-tile. A 19th-century 6-panel door with a fluted doorcase under a gabled hood is located in the doorway to the right. A moulded timber cornice runs along the first-floor level, below the tile hanging. The gable features attractive 19th-century bargeboards that are cusped and brattished. The south side is partially visible, behind the adjacent Parish Hall, and exhibits a two-window front with 12-pane sashes and a further 6-panel door matching the front one. The ground floor brickwork shows signs of earlier window and doorway arrangements, with blockings and straight joins. The north side has a mix of 19th and 20th-century casements. The roof steps down over the rear section, which is also gable-ended.

The interior retains significant early carpentry. While the wall framing is plastered over, the original section’s beams are chamfered, some with scroll stops. A large 17th-century fireplace has a sandstone surround with a chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel. The roof over the 17th-century section was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century above tie-beam level, but the end trusses reveal a clasped side purlin construction. The 18th-century extension to the rear has two bays, with chamfered beams and run-out stops. Wall posts have formed jowls, and the roof consists of tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins and raking struts.

A small front garden is partly enclosed by 19th-century cast iron railings with ornate spear finials.

Old Birchetts is an attractive house with limited 20th-century alterations and represents the oldest building in a group of attractive listed buildings facing onto The Green.