The Thatch

SY 09 SW FARRINGDON 3/36 The Thatch, Hill Barton Farm -

• II

House, former farmhouse. Mid-late C16, rearranged and extended in late C17, modernised in C19 and again circa 1980. The older section is plastered cob on stone rubble footings, brick late C17 work; stone rubble or brick stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof. The 2-room plan main block facing west comprises the hall and inner room of a C16 3- room and through-passage plan house. The hall is on the left (north) end and the inner room to right. Both rooms have rear lateral stacks. In the late C17 the right (southern) end wall was rebuilt in brick and at the same time 2 rooms were added to the rear under parallel roofs at right angles to the main roof. This part was rearranged circa 1980 and contains the main stair of this date. It is not clear whether the original passage and service end room of the main block were demolished in the late C17 or the C19. The brick of the left (northern) end wall of the main block appears to be C19. 2 storeys. Main block has a regular 2-window front of circa 1980 casements with glazing bars. Each window is flanked by sloping buttresses and those on the first floor have thatched eyebrows over. The front door is at the front end of the left end wall behind a circa 1980 porch. Roof is gable ended. The right (southern) end wall and the late C17 rear extensions are whitewashed English bond brick with a plat band at first floor level and segmental arches over the windows. The south side has a 2- window front of circa 1980 casements with glazing bars. The rear roofs are lower than the main house and provide a double gabled rear elevation in the same style as the side. llnterior: in the main block the full height crosswall is original. It is a closed side-pegged jointed cruck truss comprising large framing over an oak plank-and- muntin screen. The screen has chamfered muntins with step stops and includes a segmental-headed doorway. The head beam retains the extensive remains of late C16 painted decoration comprising short Biblical quotations set in crude strapwork cartouches of ancient colour. The rubble fireplace with soffit-chamfered oak lintel in the hall is probably also original since the 2-bay roof containing an open side- pegged jointed cruck truss is clean. The hall floor is probably early C17 and carried on a soffit-chamfered and unstopped cross beam. In the inner room the fireplace is blocked and no crossbeam shows. The roof here is carried on a late C17 A-frame truss with pegged lap-jointed collar. The front block roof is unusually tall. The rear extension has been much modernised but the basic late C17 structure appears essentially intact. The southern room has a roughly-finished axial beam and each of the roofs is 2 bays with an A-frame truss with pegged lap-jointed collar. In the valley between the trusses an oak post supports the inner principal rafters.

Listing NGR: SY0032590875