Wells Place

Wells Place is a house dating from around the mid-17th century, with a 20th-century addition at the rear right. The building features whitewashed plastered stone and cob, topped with a thatched roof that has a plain ridge and is half-hipped at the left end. It is connected to the adjoining house, Hayridge, on the right end and has an axial stack positioned to the left of center.

The layout consists of the higher end and passage of a three-room and through-passage house, although the lower left end is missing. The passage extends at the rear with a later outshut that has a catslide roof. The hall, located in the middle, is heated by a stack that backs onto the passage, while there is an unheated inner room at the right end. A 20th-century single-storey addition is attached at the rear right, and a 20th-century stair has been inserted in the hall against the party wall with the inner room.

The house is two storeys high and has an asymmetrical three-window front. The thatch eaves extend over the passage on the left, suggesting that the house may have been rebuilt. A 20th-century plank door with a chamfered pegged doorframe leads into the passage on the left, below a two-light 20th-century casement. To the right of the stack, there are two first-floor and two ground-floor early 19th-century three-light cast iron casements, each with twelve panes per light and iron glazing bars, which are a particularly attractive feature of the front elevation. On the left return, a purlin projecting through the wall indicates that the house originally extended further to the left.

Inside, there are numerous 17th-century features. The roof consists of two side-pegged jointed crucks with butt purlins, although access to the apex was not available at the time of the survey in 1986. The hall has one cross beam and two half beams with cyma recta mouldings and run-out stops. The fireplace features stone rubble jambs and a chamfered lintel supported by a timber corbel at the right end. A chamfered shouldered doorway, which was formerly between the hall and the inner room, has been modified to accommodate a 20th-century door. The unheated right-hand room has a chamfered cross beam, and there is a 17th-century chamfered scroll-stopped doorway on the first floor leading into the room above the passage. Overall, Wells Place is an attractive thatched 17th-century house with a notable front elevation.