Chilton Fold

Chilton Fold is a house, originally a farmhouse, dating to the early 16th century. It has undergone several alterations and improvements through the 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries, with modernization and extensions in the mid-20th century. The house is primarily constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with rubble and brick stacks, and a thatched roof. Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing east, with the inner room on the northern side, it now includes a 17th-century dairy block at the rear of the hall, a 19th-century store and well-house to the end of the service room, and a 20th-century extension to the inner room.

The front of the house has a 3-window facade featuring 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. A 20th-century French window on the left is believed to represent the original passage door. The roof is half-hipped on the right and gable-ended on the left. The single-story store room on the left end was originally open-fronted. The well house, set forward from the store and constructed of largely exposed rubble, has a 20th-century casement window with glazing bars and a half-hipped roof which rises above that of the adjoining store.

The original roof structure, featuring side-pegged jointed cruck trusses, remains over the hall, passage, and part of the service end. The hall has an early 17th-century crossbeam with a rebated ogee mould, while the service room has a late 16th-century crossbeam with chamfered crossbeams with step stops. The service room also features a late 17th-century volcanic ashlar fireplace with a chamfered and run-out stopped oak lintel, along with a bread oven and an alcove to the left. A late 17th-century elm A-frame, with pegged lap-jointed collar, was added as the end truss of the roof, matching the dairy roof. The dairy has a 2-light oak window frame with a chamfered mullion, and the chamber above the inner room has an 18th-century 2-light casement with rectangular leaded glass. A surviving early to mid-16th century oak plank-and-muntin screen, incorporating a flat-arched doorway, was reset within the 19th-century store. Only the headbeam of a similar screen remains on the upper side of the passage. The hall fireplace appears to be a 20th-century insertion into an internal cob crosswall. The well-house is a rare survival.