East Radley And Outbuilding Adjoining At West

Farmhouse with late medieval origins, rebuilt or extended in the 17th century with some early 19th-century refurbishment. The building stands on stone rubble footings and is constructed of whitewashed plastered cob, with the right end wall of the main range built of stone rubble. The roof of the main range is thatched with a plain ridge and gabled ends, though this has been replaced with corrugated iron over the adjoining outbuilding to the west. The south-east wing has a slate roof, hipped at the south end. End stacks serve the thatched range, with the right end stack projecting notably, and an axial stack, all featuring brick shafts.

The building follows an L-shaped plan. The south-facing main range comprises 3 rooms and a cross passage, with an outbuilding adjoining to the left (west). A single-room wing projecting to the front adjoins the house at the south-east, and a rear outshut encloses a rear stair projection. The plan reflects a complex evolution: the house originated as a late medieval open hall. Evidence of the late medieval roof, with sooted timbers, survives in the outbuilding and originally extended further west than it does now; the truncated ridge was later re-supported on an 18th-century main truss. The remainder of the outbuilding features an early to mid-17th century jointed cruck roof. The lower end of the medieval house, including the passage, has been reduced to an outbuilding status, with the two left-hand rooms of the present house probably representing the medieval hall and parlour. The house was extended eastward in the 17th century with a new passage created, possibly in the 19th century, out of the hall. Thus a medieval core exists at the west end of the range. The old inner room retains a rear stair projection, but a 19th-century axial passage, running parallel to the rear wall, has reduced the depth of this room, and the stair turret now opens off the axial passage. The right end room appears to be a 17th-century kitchen with evidence that the first floor had semi-industrial use.

The exterior shows 2 storeys. The house presents an asymmetrical 4-window front with a 20th-century porch and half-glazed front door to the cross passage. This door is flanked by 16-pane early 19th-century sashes, with a 3-light 20th-century timber window to the right. The first floor has four 19th-century 2-light small-pane casements. The inner return of the wing displays a door to the left, a small-pane 19th-century 2-light first floor casement, and a 3-light 20th-century ground floor window. The outbuilding at the left end of the main range has a blocked doorway to the right, a blocked doorway and window to the left, and a loft door and door in the centre. A slate-capped stone and cob wall divides the garden in front of the house from the yard in front of the outbuilding.

Interiorly, the ceiling beams of the house are all 20th-century except one. A late 16th or 17th-century plank and muntin screen with straight-cut stops survives between the present passage and the hall, representing the former higher end partition. The lower end fireplace features a chamfered lintel and a bread oven. The fireplace of the right-hand room may be 19th-century with 2 bread ovens. A newel stair in the stair projection opens onto a first floor lobby with chamfered doorframes and 17th-century doors. Chamfered crossbeams survive in the outbuilding.

The roof structure reveals extensive evidence of the building's evolution. Sooted ridge, rafters, battens and purlins are visible in the outbuilding at the junction with the house, the ridge supported on an 18th-century main truss. The remains of 17th-century jointed cruck trusses, designed without collars, survive further to the west in the outbuilding. Above the east end of the house, over the 17th-century kitchen, there is no main truss, and the rafters, battens and ridge are only slightly darkened. Two neatly-shaped posts project down from the roof structure into the roof space; one is fixed by a batten threaded through it, and both have neatly-made round holes in their ends, possibly for suspending something. A second pair of timbers, halved into the purlins, each have a mortise in the centre, and the post to the front of the ridge also has 2 neatly-made round holes, one at the top and one at the bottom. These features may be associated with some sort of industrial use and appear contemporary with the roof structure.

An evolved house of medieval origins with group value alongside West Radley, situated on the opposite side of the road.