Ketleas

Ketleas is a house, originally with stables, dating back to approximately 1389. It began as a two-bay house with a single bay open hall. In the early 17th century, the open hall in the southeast bay was ceiled over, a chimneystack was added to the south, and the house was converted into a two-bay, end-chimney stack house. Further extensions and conversion of the stables into living accommodation occurred in the early 1970s. The house is timber framed and rendered, with a gabled Horsham stone roof and an external brick chimneystack to the south. It has one storey and attics, featuring two windows on its front elevation. To the west of the main house are former stables constructed of brick and render, with a tiled roof.

Originally two bays with an open hall, the house evolved into a two-bay house with an end chimneystack in the 17th century and was extended in the 1970s. The front, or southwest, elevation features two gabled dormers to the attic, a gabled porch, and a wide casement window on the ground floor. The rear, or northeast, elevation also has two gabled dormers alongside a later brick and glazed extension with a tiled roof; 20th-century extensions are considered of no special interest.

The interior retains jowled posts and passing braces to the wall frame, with long braces rising almost from ground level to the eaves in a "sagging" style characteristic of very early timber framing. Braces to the centre tiebeam also rise from a position just 80cm from the floor. The roof structure was originally "sans-purlin" with collar rafters and no longitudinal bracing, with one truss remaining. The rafters are smoke-blackened, indicating the original open hall. The roof was later rebuilt with clasped purlins, queen struts and gable ends, and many rafters were rotated. It likely originally had hipped ends with gablets to allow smoke to escape. Unsmoked sections for the battens suggest the roof was originally slate (Horsham stone slabs). A floor was inserted into the open hall, and an end chimneystack added in the 17th century. A fireback dated 1635, bearing the initials “JS”, has been reported.

Dendrochronological dating in 2004 gave a felling date for the timbers of 1389. The earliest reference to the land, called Cattells, is in 1537 within an abstract of title to the Manor of Dorking cum Capel. In a survey from 1649, John Smith held Kettles alias Cattels, potentially explaining the initials on the 1635 fireback.

Ketleas is a rare survival of a substantially intact late 14th century timber framed two-bay house, originally with an open hall, featuring jowled posts and passing braces and a sans-purlin roof. It was adapted in the early 17th century to become a two-bay, end-chimney stack house. 20th-century extensions are of no special architectural interest.