Thoresby

Summary

Vernacular house, built in two phases in the 17th century.

Reasons for Designation

Thoresby, a vernacular house built in two phases in the C17, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the high proportion of survival of its historic timber frame, plan form and back-to-back chimneystacks;
* for the architectural quality of its timber-framed and thatched construction, which exhibits local distinctiveness in its form, materials and craftsmanship.

Group value:

* it forms a functional group with nearby listed vernacular houses in this rural location, including Dove Cottage and College Farmhouse, approximately 260m and 370m northwest of Thoresby respectively (both listed Grade II).

History

Research by the owner of Thoresby has recorded that the Act of Merton in 1235 allowed William de Colville to enclose an acre of land with a moat and build within it. It is understood the house was built and completed by 1300 and the area enclosing Thoresby now (2026) roughly corresponds with that mentioned in the agreement with William de Colville.

An aerial photographic and LiDAR investigation of the site surrounding Thoresby was undertaken in 2022 by an aerial imagery interpreter (Cox 2022). The investigation provided evidence of an enclosing embanked and ditched feature around the south and west sides of the property with associated drainage leats. It is possible the ditch and bank relate to the moated site constructed by William de Colville but the available evidence cannot confirm this. Most moated sites served as prestigious aristocratic and seigneurial residences with the provision of a moat intended as a status symbol rather than a practical military defence. In the case of Thoresby it was most likely a practical means to control water levels. Where moated sites have been excavated more than one phase of building activity is common.

The Weston Colville and Carlton Parva parish map, dated to 1612, shows a dwelling on this site (University Library, University of Cambridge). It is not clear if the building shown is that which survives, or an earlier building on the same site which may survive archaeologically. The land to the south of the house is labelled ‘Breach’ on the 1612 map.

The house now known as Thoresby was constructed in two phases in the C17. The front range was constructed first, as is evidenced by the uninterrupted rear wall plate. The rear range was also constructed in the C17 and likely altered in the late C17. The L-plan building is clearly depicted on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map published in 1886; by that time, the building had been subdivided to create two dwellings.

The Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments in England (RCHME) visited ‘Common Gate’ (the former name of the dwelling now known as Thoresby) in November 1951. The RCHME Investigator recorded: ‘A T-shaped building of the second half of the 17th century having a main front range running NW – SE forming one tenement and a wing projecting to the SW forming a second tenement. The front range was under repair when visited. A later addition has been made to the back wing. The front has 3 gabled dormers; the small chimney is cemented over. The back chimney is rebuilt in modern brick. Inside are exposed ceiling beams and some timber framing. The NW room in the front range is being divided up into kitchen, larder, etc. The SE room has an open fireplace with a rounded brick back.’ The RCHME Investigator provided a plan of the ground floor and a distant photograph of the building from the northeast (HE Archive ref: BF018736).

Photographs of the front of the building taken in the 1960s show a door opening to the left of the central window, and a stair window to the left of the door, in line with the side of the chimneybreast. Leaded iron casement windows shown in the 1960s photographs were removed in the late C20. The building returned to single occupancy in the late C20, and the front door was removed and blocked. The building was renamed ‘Thoresby’ in the late C20 and is shown as such on the 1981 Ordnance Survey map. The house was listed at Grade II in 1986.

Details

Vernacular house, built in two phases in the C17.

MATERIALS: the house is timber framed and rendered with thatched roofs to the front and rear ranges.

PLAN: it is L-shaped on plan comprising a rectangular-plan front range, aligned northwest to southeast, and a perpendicular rectangular-plan rear range, aligned northeast to southwest.

EXTERIOR: the front range is one-and-half storeys in height and three bays wide. The half-hipped roof is thatched with a rendered brick chimneystack to the left of centre and three thatched, gabled wall dormers to the front elevation. The walls are timber framed and rendered over a brick plinth. The ground floor has three bays of windows and a stair window in line with the chimneystack. All windows are flat-arched and contain C20 timber-framed casements unless otherwise stated. A former flat-arched door opening to the left of the central window was blocked in the late C20 and the central window widened. The northwest gable has a C20 door, flanked to either side by a flat-arched, leaded iron casement; the first floor has a C20 casement. The southeast gable has a C20 door toward the north end, a pair of C20 casements toward the south end and two C20 casements to the first floor. The rear elevation has a 12-light leaded iron casement window to the central room and a three-light metal-framed window to the southeast room. The return of the northwest gable has an early C20 metal-framed window to the ground floor.

The perpendicular rear range, probably built in the C17, is rectangular on plan, one-and-half storeys in height and gabled to the southwest. The half-hipped, thatched roof has a lower ridge line than the front range and has a brick chimneystack to the south of centre. The northwest elevation has a gabled wall dormer to the north room. At ground floor level, there is a late-C20 casement and an earlier pair of leaded iron casements to the north room, and a glazed door (introduced in the late C20) and leaded iron casement to the south room. The southwest gable has early C21 casement windows to the ground and first floors. The southeast elevation has a flat-arched door opening to the south room (introduced by the mid-C20), and a C20 large, glazed window and door to the north room, with an earlier two-light window to the left.

INTERIOR: the front range is formed of three main rooms at ground and first floor levels: the wider central room (now the dining room) was the former hall with a large fireplace at its southeast end; a former parlour (now a drawing room) at the southeast end has a smaller fireplace integrated into the rear of the hall stack; and a former service room at the northeast end was subdivided in 1951 to provide a kitchen, entrance hall, stair and WC. At first-floor level there are three bedrooms, mirroring the arrangement and partitions of the rooms below. The walls and partitions are made of thin and irregular studs. Those of the front and rear walls appear to rise the full height of the walls, running into the wall plate at eaves level (visible at first-floor level in the central and northwest rooms). The two internal partition walls are visible at ground- and first-floor levels and have a dropped tie beam arrangement. Both partitions have curved braces rising from the tie beam to the junction of the posts with the wall plate. Between the dropped beams, and the braces, further studs rise.

The former hall (now dining room) has an exposed C17 ceiling structure, with a central lateral beam running from the brick stack at the southeast end into the timber-framed partition at the northwest end. The beam is chamfered with run out chamfer stops at both ends, both with a notch on the squared end of the beam beyond the chamfer stop. The large hall fireplace is of brick, also consistent with a C17 date, and has a timber bressummer with a rough chamfered finish to the underside, supported by thin timber pads and brick jambs at each end. On the front wall, a former door opening to the right side of the window was blocked, and the open stair beside the chimneybreast is a late C20 replacement. The floor is laid with brick. The former parlour at the southeast end has a smaller fireplace, also of brick with a timber bressummer, and a rounded back to the hearth. This room also has a central lateral beam with the same run out chamfer stop and notch as the hall beam. At the south-eastern end curved braces rise to support the southeast gable wall. The northwest room (now the kitchen) was unheated and has a lateral beam running across the centre of the room, rougher in style, likely indicating a lower-status use such as a service room. The southwest corner has a jowled post supporting a tie beam (which may be a later replacement). The northwest side of the kitchen was partitioned off in 1951 to provide an entrance hall, corridor, WC and winder stair to the first floor. From the southeast corner of the kitchen a slim ledged timber door, probably added in the mid-C20, provides access to the north room of the rear wing.

The first floor is accessed via the late-C20 stair from the hall. The central and northwest rooms have the lower parts of the roof structure exposed showing roughly finished timber common rafters; the roof in the southeast room is concealed by tongue and groove panelling. The bedrooms appear to have always been ceiled at their current level (i.e. not open to the apex of the roof structure) and the partitions do not extend into the upper roof structure. In places where the rafters weren’t long enough, other timbers have been lapped onto the back of them. The common rafters support battens which in turn support the thatch roof; some of the battens appear to be later replacements, but others appear to be original. The door from the stair to the central room has a wooden pull handle of probable C17 date. The northwest bedroom was partitioned in the mid-C20 to create a bathroom and stair landing on the northwest side.

The rear range has a two-room plan at ground and first floor levels. The two rooms are separated by a substantial brick chimneystack which heats an inglenook fireplace in the north room; a fire opening in the south room has been blocked. Similar to the front range, the interior retains exposed timber stud walls, a tie beam, wall plates, and the lower parts of the roughly finished, timber common rafters. The sole plates have been largely replaced following flood damage in the early C21. Both ground floor rooms retain a central lateral beam; the chamfers are shallower than those found in the main range. There is some evidence that both the floor structure and the chimney stack may have been inserted at a slightly later date, or possibly heavily modified. The stack is formed of brick, of a similar form to that in the front range stack. The bressummer has a chamfered underside, with a chamfer stop at its western end of a scroll and bar form, typical of the C17; there is no stop at the eastern end of the beam, suggesting it may have been cut or altered. A flue was later added to the east side of the stack, possibly for a bread oven in the south room.

The first floor is accessed via a stair in the southwest corner (replaced in the early C21), and the south room was partitioned in the C20 to provide a small bedroom and corridor to the north room. Within the north room the remains of a timber framed partition rise adjacent the north side of the stack. The tie beam has peg holes along its upper face, indicating that originally there were further timber studs above the tie beam. This might suggest the building originally had a single-storey two-room plan, unheated, open from the ground to the roof (absence of smoke blackening), and that the stack was later added. The tie beam has been cut to the west side of the stack to accommodate a ledged door of probable C17 date which is formed of wide planks and retains wrought-iron strap hinges. The ceiling above the first floor rooms was probably added in the C20, as the interior roof structure above is plastered and limewashed.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

51322

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Cambridgeshire LVI.5 (1886)
Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Cambridgeshire LVI.5 (1903)
Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Cambridgeshire LVI.5 (1926)
Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments in England (RCHME) site visit notes, ‘Common Gate’, dated 21 November 1951. Historic England Archive ref BF018736
Air Photo Services, ‘Thoresby, 73 Common Road, Weston Colville, CB21 5NS, Evidence from historic aerial photographs, satellite images and LiDAR data’ (May 2022)
Map, Weston Colville, Cambridgeshire (1612)

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