Treaslake Farm

Treaslake Farm

Former farmhouse and adjoining barn, with the barn now converted to separate dwellings. The building has late Medieval origins, remodelled and possibly extended in the early 17th century, followed by several phases of 20th-century renovation and alteration, including work being carried out at the time of survey in 1987.

The main structure is built of roughly dressed stone brought to course, with the barn wing constructed of brick on stone footings. The roof is thatched and hipped at the ends. The main range has two axial stacks with brick shafts, and the rear wing has one axial stack.

The plan is T-shaped, comprising a main range facing north-west with a rear wing at right angles. The front left wing, formerly a barn, has been converted to two houses. The main range is single depth and four rooms wide, formerly with a through passage. The arrangement appears to have been higher end to the left, with the hall stack backing onto the passage, an unheated inner room (possibly later), and a lower end kitchen to the right with a massive smoking chamber projection and a second added lower end room. The core is a late Medieval open hall, though the full extent was not entirely clear at the time of survey due to limited roof space access. The rear wing appears integral with the main range. Much of the ground floor carpentry has been renewed or removed in the 20th century, including the lower end passage partition.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front. A 20th-century thatched porch covers the former cross passage, with a 19th-century plank front door. A smoking chamber projection with a hipped thatched roof projects to the right of centre. To the left of the porch is a five-light timber mullioned window with ovolo-moulded mullions and 20th-century glazing, with a four-light similar window above containing late 17th or 18th-century square leaded panes. The first floor window to the left is a two-light 18th-century casement with square leaded panes; the first floor of the smoking chamber projection has a three-light 18th-century casement with square leaded panes. Other windows are two- and three-light timber casements with glazing bars, dating to the 19th or 20th century.

The barn wing to the left has one first floor and two ground floor 20th-century small pane casements. The rear elevation retains a probably 17th-century three-light first floor mullioned window.

Internally, the room to the left of the front door has an open fireplace with good Beerstone jambs and a chamfered stopped crossbeam. The putative lower end room to the right of the front door has an open fireplace and renewed ceiling beams. A framed partition separates the wing from the main range. On the first floor, there is a good fireplace to the putative hall stack with chamfered jambs and lintel with rather flat urn stops.

The roof structure, though access was limited at survey, appears to be of jointed cruck construction throughout the main range. The apex, seen only at the centre of the house, is heavily sooted with thatch laid on sooted wattle. The wing is also of jointed cruck construction, though its apex is not smoke-blackened. This is a substantial house of Medieval origins.