The Cruck House

The Cruck House is a detached house dating from the 15th and 17th centuries. It is constructed of thin rubble stone with some larger quoins and features a tiled roof. The building has two rooms on each floor arranged around a central chimney, with a wide plan that includes one storey and a second floor entirely within the roof space.

The gable facing the road has two 2-light casement windows on the ground floor, one of which replaces a door, and both have timber lintels and thin stone hoodmoulds. Above these, there is a 3-light casement window. To the right, there is a door and a window with a similar head, along with a vertical joint in the stonework and two unlintelled casement windows. At ground level, two large, irregular stones project from the wall, one near the door and one at the right corner, which were originally bases for crucks.

Above, the stone-faced cross gable has timber posts on each side and a 2-light casement window, with a collar and tie beam truss above and wattle and daub infill. Inside, there is a large open fireplace in the far room, featuring a chamfered timber lintel with pyramid stops and an oven attached. An inserted floor above this room has deep chamfered beams that divide the ceiling into eight compartments, and two iron casements remain.

In front of the chimney stack, there is a large arch-braced open cruck truss, mostly intact except for the ground-floor section of one cruck, which has a large chamfer with a central groove. One brace has been cut for a doorhead on the first floor, and there is some later timber-framed infill. On the roadside of the chimney, a spere truss is complete up to tie-beam level, except for the lower part of one post and one arch brace, with ovolo moulding on the surviving brace and wattle and daub infill between it and the post. The house was enlarged in the 1970s.