Parkers East Parkers West Parkers West And East

House, divided into two, located on the north side of Gittisham. Constructed circa 1700-1720, possibly representing a thorough rebuilding of an earlier house, with early 20th-century re-roofing and some refenestration.

The exterior is built in hand-made brick laid in Flemish bond with blue headers, with some flint rubble to the rear left. The roof is tiled with half-hipped ends. Three chimneys serve the house: an axial stack to the left of centre and two front lateral stacks serving corner fireplaces. All have hand-made brick shafts, though some 20th-century brick repair is evident.

The plan is a single-depth block, three rooms wide, with the principal entrance into a wide passage to the right of centre. A fine dog-leg stair divides into two flights at the rear of the passage, separating the principal parlour to the right from the kitchen to the left, with a small parlour or dining room in the centre. The kitchen has a heated half-basement. Several features suggest that both the exterior and plan underwent alterations during or shortly after the early 18th century. Evidence of alteration to the stair hall was found during renovations, and the partition between the kitchen and centre room has been altered at least twice. Blocked windows appear on the rear wall and right return, some blocked with early 18th-century bricks. The single-depth plan, general layout, and survival of flint and cob walling suggest the house was built on the ground plan of an earlier structure.

The exterior is rather eccentric, with an irregularly stepped eaves line that is partly two storeys, partly three storeys, and partly two storey with attic. It is likely that the 18th-century building was three storeys with attic, and the existing profile results from Edwardian alteration in a Vernacular Revival style. The 18th-century front door to the right of centre has six fielded panels and a circa 1830s Gothick overlight with cusped glazing bars, beneath an 18th-century horizontal doorhood on shaped brackets.

The three right-hand ground floor windows (Parkers East) are 18th-century 12-pane sashes with segmental brick arches and brick dripmouls. To the left (Parkers West) is a 20th-century timber French window with glazing bars flanked on the right by an 18th-century 8-pane sash with a dripmould; a 12-pane 18th-century sash to the left with a flat brick arch; and a 20th-century casement to the ground floor left. The first floor of Parkers East has a 12-pane 18th-century sash to the left and three 2-light transomed early 20th-century timber windows with glazing bars. Parkers West has a first-floor 3-light early 20th-century casement and an 8-pane 18th-century sash, with the eaves line stepping up above the windows. The second floor (Parkers East only) has a 3-light casement with glazing bars and two early 20th-century casements, one being an attic dormer. The right return has blocked windows to both ground and first floor, a late 18th or early 19th-century 16-pane sash to the second floor, and a similar 12-pane ground floor sash which may have been converted from a doorway. The rear elevation has four blocked rear windows, a first-floor 30-pane sash, a 16-pane window lighting the stair, and a 20th-century dormer. Parkers West has a 2-light casement. A 19th or early 20th-century brick outshut extends along part of the rear wall. The left return has 20th-century transomed timber windows and an earlier window lighting the half-basement.

The interior displays high-status features of the early 18th century. The main stair in Parkers East is secondary but dates to circa 1730, forming a dog-leg that divides into two flights with balustrades. It has an open string with stylized ornament, very slender turned balusters, clustered balusters for newels, and a ramped, flat-topped, moulded handrail. Both ground-floor rooms in Parkers East have decorated plaster ceilings: the right-hand room features a central oval motif, a rose, and scallops at the corners; the left-hand room has a rectangular motif decorated with trails of naturalistic leaves—oak, ivy and others—and a moulded cornice. 18th-century doors survive on the ground and first floors, some with original hinges. The left-hand end of the house (Parkers West) is plainer, with the stack serving both the former kitchen and the half-basement, which contains a bread oven. The roof is early 20th-century.

A modestly-scaled gentry house of the early 18th century with an attractive use of hand-made brick and good-quality interior features. It occupies a prominent position in the village on rising ground and provides a foil to the vernacular thatched buildings in the village centre.