Searles

ST 11 SE CLAYHIDON 6/14 Searles - - II Also known as French Nut Tree Cottage. Detached house. Late C16 or early C17, and considerably altered. Random rubble chert; hipped slate roof. The house has been so altered that it is difficult to determine the original plan; 2 jointed cruck with collars that are both chamfered and stopped suggests that it might be a fragment of a larger building, perhaps a wing, for such high-quality roof carpentry would be unusual in a house as small as the present. Right-hand end stack. 2 storeys. Exterior: front: irregular fenestration; 2 half dormers and 2 C20 casement windows to ground floor. Some masonry disturbance suggests some rebuilding on the left-hand side, and the end elevation is mid C20. Rear: leanto, with a single light window to the left of the doorway. The doorway, possibly late C16, with chamfered jambs and cranked, pegged lintel. Interior: left-hand room with 2 cross ceiling beams, chamfered with hollow step stops, and a chamfered half beam near the present (rebuilt) end wall. Roof with 2 jointed cruck trusses; the collars, set high, are chamfered with step stops; trenched purlins; Alcock F2 type apex carpentry. The chamfered collars were presumably visible in what was once a high status chamber, perhaps in a parlour wing. The first local mention of the name Searles is in the will of John Searle of Hemyock, d.1613, he may have built the house.

Listing NGR: ST1604013752