The Woodhouse

The Woodhouse is a house located on St Mary Street in Chippenham. It dates back to the 15th century and was restored in 1991. The building features a timber frame, with a rear wing that was partly rebuilt in limestone rubble during the late 16th or early 17th century. It has a steep-pitched double-Roman tile roof with brick stacks.

The house has an L-shaped plan typical of the 15th century, with a hall at the front and a probable parlour wing at the rear. A floor was inserted into the hall in the late 16th or early 17th century, during which time stacks were added to the rear of the hall and the rear wing. There is also a 18th-century stack at the front right.

The exterior is two storeys high and features a three-window range. The early to mid 18th-century sash windows have thick glazing bars, with 9/9 panes on the first floor and three 6/6 pane windows on the ground floor, which are paired in the centre with one to the right. To the right of the windows is a six-panelled door from the 19th or 20th century. Evidence of morticing to the studs indicates that there were originally two six-light windows with wooden tracery, and the front was originally jettied. The rear wing includes late 16th or early 17th-century stone-mullioned windows with ovolo moulding, along with a 19th-century stone and brick extension.

While access to the interior was not possible during the survey, it is known to include a hall roof with two tiers of butt purlins and chamfered windbraces, showing signs of smoke blackening in the north bay. There is an attached polygonal shaft to a scissor-braced truss, flanked by collar trusses and a plain crown-post to the north, along with mortices for downswinging braces. The rear wing has four similar scissor trusses. The first-floor front fireplace from the late 16th or early 17th century features a chamfered wood bressumer and chamfered stone jambs, and there is a plank and muntin partition of the same period on the ground floor. It is likely that the hall originally extended further to the north.