| Description | South Ives House, Warley. Stone house of the 17th and 18th century incorporating late 15th century remains of a timber framed hall.
South Ives House was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles in 1980 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images, detail sketch and plan produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME). 1980). The fieldwork report is transcribed below:
'This is a stone house of the 17th and 18th centuries, incorporating within it the remains of a timber framed structure of c.1500. The house was only partially recorded and it is possible that a thorough examination of the main range will provide much new evidence for the earlier structure.
The house faces south and is of two storeys. The main range is of three cells in line, with an outshut at the rear. At the west end of the main range is a wing: this projects to the south and to the north. All the external features of the main range are of 18th or 19th century date, but the wing, built in coursed masonry quoined at the edges shows signs of having been built at an earlier date.
The wing has been converted to use as a barn, but it retains within it substantial fragments of a timber framed house of late medieval date. The timbers give a single bay of an earlier house, with the main posts surviving in the dividing wall between wing and main range and wall plates running west from the posts to a further pair of posts within the wing (one of these posts has been removed). The timbers are of heavy scantling throughout. The eastern truss was a closed one, the tie beam showing mortices for a fully framed wall. The tie beam of the western truss has been removed, but it is likely that this was the end wall, for the post shows a mortice for a brace in the extreme west side of it north face, suggesting that the studs and braces were set flush with the posts in the manner of an external wall. The wall plate shows mortices for fully framed walls, the northern plate has a stop chamfered area in the centre of the plate, showing the position of a window in the earlier house.
The wing has been re roofed making it impossible to reconstruct the form of the original roof. The east truss, however, retains a king post in situ, and the lack of mortices in the sides of the king post suggest that if the truss was a closed one above the tie, then the infill braces were upright, running from the tie to principal rafter. The present roof, dating probably from the 19th century alterations, re uses timbers from the earlier house; in particular, the present king post was originally the sill of a lintel of a long window in the timber framed housel it shows nine seatings for diamond shaped mullions. |