7, Bird-In-Hand Street

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST BIRD-IN-HAND STREET, OLD GROOMBRIDGE 16/454 No 7 20.10.54

GV II*

Small house. Probably C18, maybe earlier origins, little C19 and C20 modernisation. Weatherboarded timber frame on coursed sandstone footings; brick stack (maybe on a sandstone base) and brick chimneyshaft; peg-tile roof.

Plan: House faces north east onto the street, it has a narrow site and 2-room plan gable-end onto the street. Larger front room with large lateral stack on the left side shared with No 6 (q.v.) adjoining that side.

2 storeys.with attics in the roofspace.

Exterior: Single window each floor. Ground and first floor windows are C20 casements with rectangular panes of leaded glass and the attic has a probably original 2-light casement containing diamond panes of old leaded glass (some tinged green). Front doorway to right contains a C19 plank door under a shallow flat hood on shaped timber brackets. Roof is tall and steeply pitched.

Interior: Only the ground floor was available for inspection at the time of this survey. Front room axial beam is chamfered with runout stops but the fireplace is blocked by a C20 grate. Rear room has plain axial joists. Some of the wall framing is exposed and is built of timbers of relatively slender scantling with straight braces.

No 7 may originally have been built with No 6 (q.v.) adjoining. It is one of a superlative group of listed buildings associated with Groombridge Place (q.v.) which make up Old Groombridge village.

Listing NGR: TQ5296637734