Old Beams

Old Beams is a house that likely dates back to the 15th century, with improvements made in the 16th and 17th centuries, along with some later work. It features plastered cob on rubble footings and has cob and volcanic stone stacks with brick tops visible above the thatched roof. The house has a three-room layout with a through passage along the street, an inner room at the south-west end, and later additions at the rear. It is now two storeys high.

The front of the house, which faces the road to the north-west, is asymmetrical with four windows. The passage door is located to the left of the centre and is sheltered by a simple trellis porch. Most of the windows are 19th century casements, with the largest being a four-light window in the hall beneath a mid-19th century bow window that has a thatched gable above, featuring shaped bargeboards.

The building has a long and complex structural history. The earliest section is indicated by the three roof bays over the hall and inner room, which have jointed cruck trusses with slip-tenons that enhance the side-pegging of the post to the principal, and yokes at each apex. This part is completely smoke-blackened, suggesting that the house was originally divided by low partitions. A more conventional side-pegged jointed cruck extends one bay further north-east and is also smoke-blackened. A framed partition over the upper passage screen shows smoke-blackening on both sides, indicating the presence of two open hearths during a second phase of construction.

In the 16th century, both ends of the house were floored, and a stone stack was added to the hall, backing onto the passage. The hall was floored in the 17th century with a chamfered beam that has scroll stops. The small cob wing behind the inner room and the kitchen wing behind the service room are likely 17th century additions, while some of the service end was rebuilt in the 19th century. It is clear that more early carpentry remains concealed within the structure.