Woodlands Farmhouse And Barn Adjoining At North East

Woodlands Farmhouse and Barn, Bridford Heath Lane

A farmhouse and adjoining threshing barn forming an exceptionally good group with other thatched farm buildings around the yard to the front.

The farmhouse is probably of early 16th-century origin, remodelled in the early to mid-17th century. The threshing barn dates to the late 17th century. The house is built of whitewashed plastered cob on stone rubble footings with a thatched roof gabled at the ends. It has a projecting right-end stack with granite shaft, an axial stack with granite shaft, and a projecting rear lateral stack with two bread ovens. The adjoining threshing barn is of cob and stone rubble construction and now has a corrugated iron roof, formerly thatched.

The farmhouse is arranged on an L-plan with a rear right wing running parallel to the lane, with the threshing barn adjoining this rear wing. The building is probably a late medieval open hall house in origin, though the roof apex is not accessible. The present plan consists of four rooms and a cross passage, with a lower-end parlour to the right, a hall stack backing onto the passage, and a kitchen at the higher end with an added dairy at the extreme left. A hall stair is located in the rear projection, further stairs serve the rear of the parlour, and an axial stair against the rear wall of the dairy provides access from the kitchen. A single-room rear right wing at the lower end was originally accessible only from the exterior. The exact evolution of the house is unclear; the earliest roof truss is over the hall and there appears to have been some re-roofing over the lower end. 17th-century panelling in the kitchen is probably re-sited but suggests this room once had higher status.

Externally the house is two storeys. The front elevation is asymmetrical with six windows; the eaves thatch is eyebrowed over the three left-hand windows. There is a 20th-century front door to the cross passage with a porch canopy on posts, and a further doorway into the dairy at the left. The windows are 2- and 3-light 19th and 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars. The right return has two 20th-century windows to the wing. The rear elevation of the house is blind except for one rounded bread oven and one rectangular brick bread oven to the rear lateral stack, and a shallow rectangular stair projection to the hall.

The interior of the hall features an open fireplace with moulded jambs and a timber lintel, two exposed crossbeams, and a plank and muntin screen at the higher end with chamfered stopped muntins. A right-angled section of plank and muntin screening with ovolo-moulded muntins forms a draught excluder adjacent to the open hearth. The inner room kitchen has a partly-blocked fireplace and a plastered-over crossbeam. The plank and muntin screen to the hall is faced on this side with 17th-century panelling. The lower-end parlour has a moulded crossbeam; the present fireplace probably conceals earlier jambs and lintel.

The roof structure is not fully accessible, though one truss over the hall is either a true or raised cruck, and the timbers visible over the lower end appear to be later.

The threshing barn is single-storey with a large doorway in the centre and opposed rear door. It has two pegged collar rafter roof trusses with principal rafters with curved feet.

The house may have been the home of Richard de le Wodelande in 1281.