Aller Farmhouse

Aller Farmhouse

Aller Farmhouse is a farmhouse of 14th-century origin, remodelled and partly rebuilt in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with extensive renovations in 1984. The building is constructed of whitewashed rendered stone rubble with some cob, the left end wall rebuilt in concrete block. The roof is thatched, gabled at the left end and hipped at the right end, with a rebuilt left end stack, an axial stack with granite shaft and crenellated cap, and a right end stack.

The building follows a three-room and through-passage plan, with the lower end (service end) to the right (east). A pottery fragment found during rebuilding, dated by John Allan, confirms the 14th-century origins. The layout and structural evidence indicate that the building began as a high-quality 14th-century open hall house. Fragments of pottery found under a quoin at the upper end confirm this early date. The original structure contained an arched brace roof truss with an unusual apex over the hall, and the remains of a second arched brace truss were truncated when the hall stack was subsequently added. Evidence of both lower and higher end jetties indicates that the ends of the house were floored before the hall and before the insertion of the hall stack. A recess adjacent to the hall stack may mark the position of the first hall stair, later replaced by a stair against the rear wall. A probably 19th-century straight stair rises against the rear wall of the inner room with access from the hall. The lower end was re-roofed and probably rebuilt in the 17th century and appears to have been unheated until the 19th century; the inner room may also have been unheated until the 19th century when it was re-roofed. A detached block with a stack, semi-ruinous and demolished within the last six years (according to information from the owner), may have been the 17th-century kitchen. 20th-century renovations have involved the introduction of carpentry from elsewhere; the lower end partition of the passage no longer exists.

The exterior presents a two-storey asymmetrical front with three windows. A 20th-century plank and cover-strip front door occupies the position to the right of centre of the former passage, with a probably re-sited chamfered stopped lintel. A plaster date plaque above the door reads "WMN 1707". The windows are two- and three-light timber casement windows with glazed bars, some with re-used timber lintels. The rear elevation is slightly broken forward in the centre and is otherwise blind, apart from the cross-passage rear door. The right return features a first-floor two-light ovolo-moulded timber mullioned window, re-sited from the rear wall.

In the interior, the granite ashlar back of the hall stack is exposed in the former passage, with a plinth and cornice; the remainder of the partition is made up of a plank and muntin screen. Under the stair adjoining the cross passage is a granite trough with several holes drilled in the base, possibly related to a channel crossing the floor of the lower end and leaving the building through one corner, as documented by Laithwaite. The ceiling beams of the lower end room consist of a chamfered step-stopped cross beam with chamfered stopped joists, all introduced from elsewhere and replacing a chamfered stopped joists and an RSJ. The hall has a good open fireplace with a massive chamfered granite lintel and jambs, and the remains of a bread oven in a recess adjacent to the stack. The hall crossbeam is chamfered and stopped, with joists (concealed by ceiling plaster) bearing bead moulding. 20th-century replacement joists with moulded ends replace a mutilated jetty that projected into the hall adjacent to the stack. The room over the inner room was formerly jettied into the hall, but evidence is now concealed by ceiling plaster. A plank and muntin screen at the higher end has chamfered muntins with diagonal stops and substantial traces of paint showing designs of grapes and foliage; this screen is possibly part of the medieval arrangement. A 18th-century panelled door with HL hinges provides access to the hall stair. The inner room has a chamfered cross beam and exposed joists of large scantling.

The roof contains important medieval work, now beneath a larger later roof structure. The remains consist of one smoke-blackened arched brace main truss with a yoke to carry a square-set ridge, infilled with plaster and sooted on the hall side. Sooted rafters survive, as do the remains of a second truss, truncated by the stack. Sooted purlins and rafters extend over the passage as far as a later 17th-century collar rafter truss with a lap dovetailed collar and diagonally-set ridge. A single braced strut from the medieval roof survives to the rear of the ridge, visible in the first-floor room over the lower end. This is an important medieval house with rare evidence for dating. It is possibly the home of William de Alre, documented in 1333.