Eyhurst Farmhouse

Eyhurst Farmhouse is a timber-framed house of probably late 14th to early 15th-century origin, substantially altered in the 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. The timber-frame core is encased in and supplemented by flint with red-brick dressings, and some tile-hanging, beneath plain tile roofs.

The original plan comprised a 2-bay open hall with a 2-storey solar at the north-east end, and a service wing or bay at the south-west end. In the early 17th century, a floor was inserted and a stair tower added on the south-east side, with probable later 17th-century additions at the north-east end. In the early 19th century, a 2-storey 3-bay range was added at the south-west end, replacing the former service area. Various bay-window and single-storey additions and other alterations were made in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The most completely original elevation is at the south-west end, being the early 19th-century range. This is constructed of flint with brick quoins, bands and quoined openings. It is symmetrical, with a central doorway featuring a 20th-century part-glazed door with panelled jambs protected by a large hood on columns with a swagged wreath in the tympanum. Either side of the door are later tripartite windows with 4-pane sashes flanking 12-pane sashes. On the first floor, sashes with glazing bars flank a 16-pane sash. A hipped roof projects from either return, with a full-height early 20th-century bowed window under an oversailing roof. The garden elevation to the south-east has the added stair tower, now early 20th-century in appearance, with a large 4-light mullioned and transomed stair window below a tile-hung gable with paired lights to the apex and carved bargeboards. Beyond the old stack at the right end of the central main range, the tile-hung addition, possibly 17th-century in origin, has a cross-wing at the right end and is of flint with brick dressings on other elevations. The north-west elevation is mostly 20th-century in appearance: the former open hall has a large early 20th-century canted bay window, three early 20th-century casements to the first floor, a parapet, and a stack rising above an inserted fireplace. The former solar is now of brick.

Internally, the former hall has heavily moulded cross-beams at either end. The beam at the lower end has chamfers in its lower arris from the heads of panels from a former plank-and-muntin panelled partition wall. To the right of the window is a moulded base of a corbel supporting a large-scantling arched brace. Early 17th-century alterations include the insertion of a floor, which has a large scantling cross-beam with run-out chamfer and joists with similar stepped stops to chamfers. The spine partition wall was probably inserted at the same time, as a contemporary plaster frieze of acorns continues along this partition. The small fireplace against the solar partition has a deep timber lintel with stepped stops to the chamfer, supported by stone jambs with moulded arrises. The former solar has a cross-beam supporting short joists of large scantling, closely spaced, with broad chamfers and stepped and run-out stops (some joists being replacements). Plaster rose and thistle friezes elsewhere in the house are 19th or 20th-century. The early 19th-century range has a contemporary bolection-moulded fireplace. The stair window contains reused stained glass dated 1679 and 1681.

On the first floor, more of the original timber frame is visible, including very large-scantling timbers, jewelled wall posts, and tie beams with run-out stops, curved braces, and a hall-solar partition wall. Most significantly, a short central crown post is present, featuring a heavily-moulded base with broadly chamfered arrises and plain stops, and arched braces to the collar purlin and collar, with collared rafters. More of the crown-post roof structure is visible in the roof space, with plain crown posts at each end of the hall with arch braces down to tie-beams. Sooting on the rafters, which are morticed and tenoned at the apex, is evident. The hall-stair partition wall rises full-height in wattle and daub. Evidence for a similar former hall services partition wall exists at the lower end, with collar purlins extending approximately 500 millimetres into the former service range.