| Description | Croft Holding, Walton in Aintsy. Early 17th century timber framed house encased in stone.
'House. Probably early C17; encased C18; altered and extended C20. Timber framing encased in stone now cement rendered'. C20 cement tile roof, 2 storeys; 3 bay, lobby entrance plan with aisles to rear of bays 2 and 3 and C20 wing to rear of bay 1. C20 porch to right of bay 2 beneath an exposed section of wall post; another exposed wall post divides bays 1 and 2; C20 3 light casement windows to each bay, that to lst floor bay 3 is smaller. Wall plate exposed over bays 1 and 2; corbelled brick kneelers at each end. Stone end stack on right; brick ridge stack over porch. Right return: exposed tie beam and wall plate ends morticed for corner posts.
Interior: not inspected. RCHM survey notes 2 arcade posts with one surviving curved brace to the arcade plate; spine beam and common joists in bay 1 of C17 character; light scantling, common rafter roof with halved collars. The survey expresses uncertainty as to whether the house was an earlier open hall with floored end bays or whether (by virtue of the C17 style floor in bay 1) it was built as 2 storey throughout in the C17'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 06/03/1984. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1115512. Web site accessed 19/12/2013).
Croft Holding was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles in 1979 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images and sketch plan produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS). 1979). The fieldwork report is transcribed below:
'This is a stone house incorporating the remains of an earlier timber framed aisled house. The stone house is of one and a half storeys and of three cells in line with a lobby entrance. There is an outshut behind the central and eastern cells: in the western cell the outshut has been rebuilt to give two full storeys.
The timber framed house can be reconstructed in part. It was aisled, certainly in the central bay and possibly over the whole length. Two posts are visible on the ground floor: a third is visible on the first floor. The east gable wall shows a tie beam and wall plates: the later have mortises for posts in their soffit. The west gable wall has been rendered, but shows signs of retaining its tie beam. The framing, therefore, defines a range of three bays and, although the point cannot be proved, this is likely to be the original extent of the timber framed house.
The house was probably divided on the line of the bays, giving three cells. The central bay was an open hall, aisled to the north. Posts X and Y [rear aisle, centre bay] rise to an arcade plate, with a curved brace up from post Y to plate and a mortise in post X indicating the former existence of a brace on this side also. Heavy curved braces rose to the tie beam. Post X also has an aisle tie, and, a little lower on the post, a mortise for a cross beam running south. This confirms that the house was divided on the line of bays: 'X' '3' [posts at division of bay one and two at north and south walls] would have been a fully framed wall, possible dividing the open hall from a floored west end.
The west end, then, was likely to be the superior parlour element, leaving the eastern cell as the service room. Little can be said about the east end, for neither the first nor the roof space was open to investigation. Its nature and function floored, aisled, heated etc. cannot be determined, therefore. |