The Dower House

THE DOWER HOUSE

A dower house dating from around 1620, extended probably by 1700 and altered in the later 18th or early 19th century. By 1900 it had been divided into three cottages, but reverted to a single house after 1927. The building is timber framed with red brick nogging incorporating some burnt headers, both now repaired. The north west gable is of later 18th or early 19th century red brick with burnt headers. The south east gable wall is encased in grey brick within a timber frame. It is roofed in thatch.

The house follows a two-cell lobby entry plan with the entrance to the north east face positioned against a central stack. An additional lower two-bay cell extends to the north with a late 18th or 19th century offset and external stack. The stair sits behind the stack with a closet above the entrance and a second stair rising from the lower cell. The building stands two storeys high.

The entrance on the north east face has a three-board door with moulded covering strips beneath a timber porch with tiling. A second entrance to the kitchen bay on the south west front is sheltered beneath a canopy supported on brackets and has a four-board door with moulded covering strips and long strap hinges, featuring unusual door furniture. The windows are of two and three-light design with square mullions, though many have been repositioned or altered. The entrance elevation was formerly strictly symmetrical. The central room on both floors has three-light windows on the former entrance front, with the first floor version now in altered position. Most window frames have been reworked with replaced sills and mullions. All ground floor windows are fitted with 20th century shallow canopies on moulded brackets. Some surviving 17th or 18th century iron casements retain original saddle bars, latches, stays and pins, all now fitted with 20th century leaded glazing. The ground floor south west elevation right hand window displays an ornate plate bearing the cypher "IP".

Interior

The left hand northernmost bay, now the kitchen, has a brick pamment floor. The room to the right, now the dining room, contains a stair with square newels topped with facetted heads, possibly a former doorway at its base. The principal ground floor chamber is spanned by an axial beam with shallow chamfer and lambs tongue stop, supported on a roughly moulded post. Similar chamfered moulding decorates the bressumer to the large fireplace. The parlour has a smaller, repaired fireplace with a comparable bressumer and small oven. It also features a similar moulded axial beam, though supported on a cruder post with some replaced joists. The stair rising behind the stack has a square newel with facetted head and fine chunky turned balusters with a lightly chamfered rail. Below it sits a small cupboard with a strap hinged door. A second stair rising from the lower cell has square newels with facetted heads, a chamfered rail, and replaced balusters. The upper floor is laid with broad elm boards.

Both floors have doors of three or four vertical boards with moulded covering strips, the earlier doors principally of four boards. The door to the principal bedroom has very long strap hinges, while others feature strap hinges, some being 1920s copies. An early cupboard door at the top of the stair retains its original character. An early doorway has been cut through the north wall of the central first floor chamber. The closet window, reduced to a single leaf, retains an ovolo moulded frame. A three-light window to the north west front includes an early leaf with long stay pin. The left hand north gable first floor window retains part of its moulded internal frame. The central chamber contains a brick fireplace with curved back. The southern chamber has been subdivided into two rooms with no visible trace of a fireplace remaining.

Unexplained symmetrical rows of peg holes appear on the north west wall at first floor and similarly in the ground floor end kitchen bay. The roof is a well-constructed clasped purlin structure. The chimney stack is divided into two sections, with the apex of the stack bay featuring a framed and rendered partition above the brickwork. Evidence of a former north gable window, later made internal, confirms the addition of the lower northern bays.

History

The house is said to date from the 1620s and was built as the dower house to the local manor, held by the Cheyne family from the 14th century to 1722. It represents a well-documented example of a house of this scale, following vernacular tradition whilst being sufficiently advanced to feature a symmetrical entrance front. The interior features are particularly fine and largely intact, notably the main stair, making it rare to find a house of this type retaining so much of its original fittings and finishes.