Upper Gulmswell

Upper Gulmswell is a house that features a modern painted date of 1571 on its front and has a late 20th-century rear wing. The building is constructed from whitewashed plastered cob and stone rubble, topped with a thatched roof that has a plain ridge and is gabled at both ends. It has end stacks with rendered shafts, while the rear wing is plastered and has a two-span tiled roof. The house follows a two-room and through passage plan, with a staircase inserted in the passage and a rear left wing added in the 20th century. The carpentry details observed during the survey suggest a late 16th or 17th-century date, indicating that the house may have been a remodelling of a medieval structure.

The exterior of Upper Gulmswell is two storeys high and features an asymmetrical front with three windows. The thatch eaves are eyebrowed over the first-floor windows. There is a 20th-century gabled thatched porch at the front door leading into the passage, and the windows are a mix of 1-, 2-, and 3-light small pane timber casements from the 20th century.

The interior was not fully inspected, but a plank and muntin screen separates the passage from the left-hand room, which includes a well-crafted ovolo-moulded cross beam and exposed 20th-century joists. A 20th-century chimneypiece likely conceals earlier features, and there may be additional carpentry details present. The roof was not inspected during the survey, but there is a possibility that medieval timbers could still exist, which might change the suggested dating of the house. Upper Gulmswell is attractively situated back from and below the current road level, across a ford, enhancing its traditional thatched house charm.