East Ruckham

East Ruckham is a house, formerly a farmhouse, situated in Cruwys Morchard on Ruckham Lane. It comprises an early 16th-century core that was remodelled and extended in around the mid-17th century, with further refurbishment in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Renovations were underway at the time of survey in 1986.

The main range is built of whitewashed and rendered stone with a tiled roof (formerly thatched) with sprocketted eaves. Two rear lateral stacks with tall brick shafts are present, one projecting through the roof. The wing is rendered cob with a tiled roof gabled at the end and has an axial stack with a brick shaft. An axial stack in the main range has been replaced with an aluminium flue.

The building follows an L-plan. The oldest part is a single-room north-south wing containing the core of a late medieval open hall house, possibly originally extending further north or south. In around the mid-17th century, the wing was remodelled as a kitchen when the present west-east range was added. This is a three-room single-depth block with a hall and parlour to the east, abutting the kitchen wing. The hall is heated from the projecting rear lateral stack; the parlour is heated from a stack in the right end wall. The arrangement at the left end of the range is less clear, consisting of a left end room heated from a rear lateral stack and an entrance hall with stairs against the rear wall. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the house was refenestrated and refurbished, giving the main range an approximately symmetrical appearance. A rear right former dairy, now under the same roofline as the main east-west range, appears to be a later addition in the outer angle between the main range and kitchen wing.

The building is two storeys. The south front comprises three symmetrical left-hand bays with a central front door having panelled reveals and a rectangular fanlight, plus one further right-hand bay. Windows are predominantly 16-pane sashes, though one was missing at the time of survey and a further first-floor window on the right is a 20th-century casement. The kitchen wing, at right angles to the main range and projecting to the front, has three 20th-century sashes in the gable end. The left (west) return of the wing has a shallow brick buttress and two three-light small-pane casements; the east return has a modern door. The rear elevation of the main range has one first-floor probably 18th-century sliding sash; other windows are modern casements.

The wing roof is late medieval with side-pegged jointed cruck construction and is smoke-blackened. The roofspace was not fully accessible at survey, but some rafters, one jointed cruck truss, and most of a diagonally-set ridge survive. There is evidence of an accidental fire in the 17th-century kitchen on the ground floor, though this is unlikely to be the source of the smoke-blackening as the plaster on the chimney is unsooted. The purlins project beyond the stack where the sooting fades; the stack may have been inserted on the site of a former partition. The roof extends approximately two metres beyond the stack and was formerly hipped but has been altered to a gable. The ground floor contains a massive open kitchen fireplace with a bread oven and a rough lintel extending almost the complete width of the room above a smoking chamber with a flue said to join the main stack. A very deeply chamfered cross beam with scroll stops is charred in the centre and may be re-sited; joists have been replaced.

The main range has heavily-moulded bar-stopped cross beams throughout the hall and parlour, which are divided by a stud partition of slender scantling. The hall fireplace, with plaster stripped at survey, has a 19th-century iron chimneypiece; a large plain timber lintel above is unlikely to be the original 17th-century timber. The parlour fireplace, also open but with a metal flue, has a moulded 17th-century timber lintel. Joinery from the late 18th and early 19th-century refurbishment includes panelled doors and shutters. The roof trusses in the main range are side-pegged jointed crucks with collars lap-dovetailed onto the principals, which are mortised at the apex with a diagonally-set ridge, purlins, and rafters intact. Intermediate trusses of probably late 18th-century date are pegged and are presumed to provide additional support in each bay. A closed truss stands approximately above the partition between hall and parlour. Although the right end of the main range is hipped above the former dairy, there is a vertical wall in the roofspace at the right end of the range with a probably 16th-century arched single-light timber window whose relationship to the parlour fireplace is unclear.

This is an evolved farmhouse with interior features of architectural interest.