Details
ASHILL CP -
ST31NW
2/14 Rowland's Farm House, and
attached outbuildings around
courtyard on north side,
including well
4.2.58
II*
Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16, remodelled in late C16, minor alterations since. Ham stone, some ashlar, some roughly
cut and squared with ashlar dressings; double Roman clay tiled roof between high stepped coped gables suggesting former
thatch; ashlar chimney stacks with moulded caps. 'U'-plan; 2 storeys with attics, south elevation of 5 bays. Plinth to
all but last bay, eaves course, angled south-west corner buttress and bay buttresses: hollow-chamfer mullioned windows
with 4-centre-arched lights and incised spandrels under flat heads with labels; the ashlar bay I has 4-light windows at
both levels in chamfered recesses, with square-stop labels; to bay 2 a 4-light tall mullioned and transomed window in
hollowed recess, and to bay 3 a matching window set to same height but with higher cill and no transome; to bay 5 are
4-light windows at both levels, apparently restored in C20: bay 4 has a projecting 2-storey porch with angled corner
buttresses and coped gable, a 4-light window with label above; and below a 4-centre arched open roll-and wavemoulded
archway without label, and inside bench seats and a chamfered inner doorway; with blocked single- light windows in
returns to first floor level: dormer windows in roof over bays 2, 3 and 5. The east elevation, the closed end of
courtyard, quite plain: the west main gable has a short return, and in this and the lower part of main gable are
12-light sash windows of early pattern, with thick glazing bars, the south pair having moulded hoods; the centre window
at first floor level a 2-light rectangular-leaded casement under hoodmould. Rear elevation of main block to satch, with
the link wing northwards to bay 1, then a small projection, presumably for stair, with simple mezzanine window;
opposite the porch a 4-centre-arched doorway, with 2-light window and an attic dormer above; to bays 3 and 4 are
4-light windows set at mezzanine level, with heraldic glass, and between them a proudstanding chimney stack, then a
slight projection with plain rectangular windows, the upper barred, and in short return wing two 2-light mullioned
windows and a 4-centre-arched doorway. The west elevation of the closing wing has a simple 2-light window above, and
wide boarded door in heavy frame under timber lintel below, with a re-set 2-part stairlight and a casement window
alongside. Interior not seen, but reported is a cross-passage and hall plan with alterations and additions mostly made
before c1750. The hall has a late C16 timber screen, chamfered cambered-arched fireplace, the plastered ceiling has
sections of a decorated plaster frieze, and above the fireplace, also in plaster, the arms of Elizabeth I, The inner
room has a 6-panel ceiling, each panel originally subdivided into 4 more; the walls partly rebuilt apparently before
1750, the stairway off modern, but replacing an earlier stair. The west kitchen has a 4-panel ceiling, and nearby an
adapted newel staircase, The link wing at the east end of the courtyard has deep-chamfered heals with step and runout
stops, with a clumsy connection at first floor level. The wing to the north of the courtyard may represent an earlier
house: the south wall, much restored, retains one early timber-framed window, and a blocked doorway into the east link
wing; the north wall has two more early timber windows. The roof frame of this wing has 4 jointed cruck trusses, with
some timbers smoke-blackened; there are some traces of windbraces, including one surviving fragment, and there is also
a timber-framed gable end. House restored by Raywand Erith in the mid 1970s. (VAG Reports, SRO unpublished, December
1972, February 1973 and January 1980).
Listing NGR: ST3431716361
