Stoney Court

Stoney Court is a house of late 15th to early 16th-century origin, substantially improved in the later 16th and 17th centuries, with modernisation undertaken around 1980. It is constructed of local stone rubble with some cob and late 17th-century red brick; the chimneystack is topped with 19th and 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched.

The main block faces north and retains an altered three-room-and-through-passage plan. At the left (east) end is a small unheated inner room, originally a buttery or dairy, which was united with the hall bay in the 20th century by removing the partition between them. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. The lower end comprises a parlour crosswing projecting at right angles to the rear, with its own axial stack backing onto a narrow unheated service end across the front. A newel stair rises alongside the parlour fireplace. A wing projects forward in front of the inner room end; originally detached, it now connects to the main block. This wing functioned as a detached kitchen and bakehouse with servant accommodation above, and retains a disused front end stack.

The main block represents the historic core of the house. The original roof survives over the passage, hall and inner room, proving that the late 15th to early 16th-century house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room's flooring date is unclear, though it appears to have been refurbished in the mid to late 17th century. The lower end was probably floored in the mid 16th century, certainly before the hall fireplace was inserted in the late 16th or early 17th century. The lower end was rebuilt as a parlour kitchen in the early to mid 17th century, while the detached kitchen and bakehouse was provided in the mid to late 17th century. The hall was floored around the same time.

The house is two storeys with a 20th-century lean-to outshot on the right end of the front. The irregular three-window front contains various casements with first-floor windows as half dormers. The hall windows are mid to late 17th-century oak-framed; only the first-floor window retains its original ovolo-moulded mullions. The first-floor right window is contemporary but has chamfered oak mullions. The ground-floor right window is late 17th-century oak with flat-faced mullions. The central first-floor window is a 19th-century casement with glazing bars. Other windows contain mostly rectangular panes of leaded glass, some very old. The passage front doorway is right of centre, with a mid to late 17th-century frame having a moulded surround; the door itself and the thatch-roofed porch with rustic trellis sides are 20th-century additions. The roof is hipped at both ends. The former detached kitchen has a two-window front of 19th-century casements with glazing bars and a central doorway containing an old plank door; its roof is half-hipped at both ends.

Internally, the hall retains its original oak plank-and-muntin screen, now moved back to line the end wall. A similar screen survives at the lower end between the hall and passage. Both screens have round-headed doorways, apparently altered from original shoulder-headed arches, and may have been original low partition screens. The former hall and inner room have chamfered axial beams with pyramid stops; the hall stop accommodates the chimneystack. The fireplace is lined with 20th-century brick, though its chamfered oak lintel is original. The lower side of the passage contains a 16th-century oak-framed crosswall, with the lower section including remains of an oak plank-and-muntin screen.

The roof structure over passage, hall and inner room is remarkably intact and mostly original. It comprises two jointed cruck trusses, one of which is exposed with face pegging. Both have small triangular yokes with diagonally set ridge (Alcock's apex type L1). The complete roof structure includes original purlins (missing only the inner room hip cruck), common rafter couples, and the underside of the thatch is lined with wattling. A simple smoke louvre—comprising a couple of pitched boards set transversely across the ridge and through the thatch—survives. The roof once continued over the service area but was replaced in the early to mid 17th century when the parlour wing was built. The parlour crossbeam is chamfered with step stops. The fireplace is plastered and its oak lintel matches the crossbeam's finish. The newel stair features ancient oak stops. The roof here comprises side-pegged jointed cruck trusses and A-frame trusses with simple lap-jointed collars. The former detached kitchen displays very similar constructional detail. Its stack has been removed to create additional first-floor space, but its full-width chamfered oak lintel remains.

Stoney Court is a particularly significant survival, representing not only a very good example of a late medieval house but also including a rare surviving detached kitchen and bakehouse wing.