Oak Farmhouse

Details

TL 96 SE ELMSWELL ASHFIELD ROAD

5/23 Oak Farmhouse 15.11.54

-- II

Former farmhouse; late C15 or c.1500, with core early C14 or c.1300. Alterations of c.1600. A rare but depleted example of a modest aisled hall house. One storey and attics. 3-cell cross-entry plan. Timber-framed and plastered. Pantiled roof, formerly thatched. An axial chimney of C17 red brick. Early C19 casements. Boarded C19 door at cross-entry position with gabled C19 open porch on posts. Interior: The earliest and most important of 4 main phases is a fragmentary survival from a modest aisled hall house of, probably, c.1300. A closed aisled truss at the left hand end of the hall was at the'lower' end, with semi-octagonal shafts rising to moulded capitals. From these rise a pair of lap-dovetailed braces to a slender tiebeam. Above the tiebeam is a gable entirely of wattle and daub without studding, but below it is full close-studding - probably a C15 introduction. The arcade-plate at the front wall (both aisles have been removed) has a straight brace from the arcade post. It has evidence for two unequal bays in the hall, and for an open truss braced only in the upper bay, not in the lower - a rare feature. Also evidence for multiple tiebeams; over the cross-entry, and one either side of the open truss (unequally spaced because of the unequal bay lengths). In the late C15 the front wall was rebuilt beneath the arcade plate, with close- studding. A cross-entry was formed at the right hand end, a close-studded partition with a pair of 4-centred arched service doorways (one with its original door remaining). The rear aisle remained at this stage. In the front wall is the diamond-mullioned hall window. In late C16, a 1st floor was inserted in the hall, with unchamfered joists laid flat, and an archbraced tie-beam inserted beneath the two arcade plates at the open truss, in place of the previous tie beam(s). In early C17, a parlour block was added to left of the hall, with on-edge 1st floor joists and with back-to-back open fireplaces in the hall and parlour. The service cell to right was also rebuilt, on a tall plinth of narrow bricks, and reusing medieval timbers. Several blocked diamond-mullioned windows. All roofs rebuilt, using clasped purlins. A complete late C16 plank-and-muntin cross-passage screen is in the hall.

Listing NGR: TL9931864719

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

281126

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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