| Description | This small stone house incorporates the remains of a timber framed aisled hall that dates to c.1500. The house was then encased either in the 17th or 18th century. The walls are of coursed rubble stone, with stone slate roofs, and the house is two storeys high.
Two bays of the timber framed house survive. They were both aisled. An open truss within these surviving bays shows that the timber framed house was larger, running on to the east. The roof structure survives as raking queen posts, which clasp side purlins in a common rafter roof. ‘The heavy scantling throughout the range suggests a date in the late 15th or early 16th century’ (Giles, 1979).
Giles (1979) suggests that ‘the evidence indicates that the remains of the timber framed house represent one bay of an open aisled hall, with a single bay upper end to the west’. The hall was then floored in the late 17th century, when the fire hood was replaced by the present stone stack. Casing of the house in stone possibly took place at the same time, but a lack of evidence for 17th century fenestration, along with a square jamb door that is probably no earlier in date than 1750, would suggest a mid 18th century date instead. However, there is an outshut to the building that contains a recessed splayed mullion window, which could provide evidence for a 17th century date for the stone casing.
‘In both size and detail the 18th century house marks a decline in status from its timber framed predecessor’ (Giles, 1979). However, ‘this is a very rare survival of the pre industrial building type’ (English Heritage, 1976). |