The Hayes

Estate house with late medieval origins, remodelled in two phases during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with some 20th-century alterations. The building is constructed of creamwashed rendered cob and stone with a thatched roof featuring a plain ridge, hipped at the left end and half-hipped at the right end of the main range, and hipped at the wing end. There are an axial stack and two rear lateral stacks serving the main range.

The house is sited north of the church, on the edge of the churchyard, and follows an L-shaped plan with a single-depth main range facing north-east and a rear left wing set at right angles. The main range contains a 4-room plan with a through passage, with the lower end positioned to the north-west. The core of the house is a late medieval open hall that was floored in at least two phases, with the lower end flooring first, jettying into the hall. The rear lateral hall stack may have been added before the hall floor was introduced. The lower end and inner room were probably not heated until the 18th or 19th centuries—the inner room with a rear lateral stack, the lower end with a stack backing onto the passage. The extreme right end room, now used as a garage, may be an early 17th-century addition; like the rest of the main range, it has jointed cruck roof construction. The rear wing probably served an agricultural or semi-agricultural function, with part of it now absorbed into the house. A 20th-century stair, replacing an earlier one, rises from the cross passage against the front wall. The higher side partition of the through passage has been removed to the rear, forming a small lobby at the front.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical 4-window front. The eaves thatch is eyebrowed over two of the three first-floor windows. A gabled porch serves the former through passage to the left of centre, featuring shaped bargeboards and a 16th-century inner doorframe with a rounded arch. A buttress stands to the right of centre; to the right is a 2-light casement serving the garage with 20th-century square leaded panes. Other windows are 2- and 3-light 20th-century casements with square leaded panes. The left return, forming part of the churchyard boundary, has one 2-light casement at the end of the main range and two small ground-floor windows. The rear elevation of the main range retains evidence of the blocked rear door of the through passage and features 2- and 3-light casement windows with 20th-century square leaded panes and a garage door to the left. A 20th-century lean-to porch serves a back door into the wing, which has a garage door to the right, a loft loading door above a central door, and one ground-floor and one first-floor 20th-century casement window.

The interior is rich in 16th and 17th-century carpentry. The hall features a chamfered axial beam and exposed joists; both the axial beam and the half-beam on the rear wall, supported on brackets, are jointed, presumably due to the width of the span. The fireplace retains a probably 16th-century chamfered lintel. At the higher end, the partition with the inner room is of stud construction with panels of plaster between widely-spaced studs; the headbeam rises as a cambered lintel to a central doorframe. The first floor over the inner room is jettied into the hall, with a deep jetty; five beams survive in the centre with rounded-off ends, while other beams have been cut off. The inner room has a chamfered half-beam at the south-east end and a 19th-century chimneypiece. The lower end room is plain, probably with ceiling beams concealed behind later plaster. 20th-century carpentry, including the stair and ground-floor doors, is of high quality in a Vernacular Revival style.

At the time of the 1988 survey, the roof apex was not accessible, but during repairs it was reported that smoke-blackened thatch and timbers survive, with thatch probably laid on wattle, especially to the front of the ridge. Parts of two massive side-pegged jointed cruck trusses are visible, one on the first floor. This is a traditional house of medieval origins within an outstanding estate village characterized by cob and thatch construction.