Summary
Timber-framed smoke bay house, about 1600, with later inserted stack. Heavily restored and extended in 2006/7.
Reasons for Designation
Howards Farm, Woking, a timber-framed smoke bay house of about 1600, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reason:
Architectural and historic interest:
* as a legible example of a vernacular house, which reveals regional structural framing techniques, a distinctive central hearth plan-form, evolving modes of domestic heating and early forms of fenestration.
History
Howards Farm is believed to date from c1600, originating as a smoke-bay house with a brick stack inserted (pre-C18) into the smoke bay. The house was recorded in 1975 by the Domestic Buildings Recording Group (Surrey), the report noting evidence of lost features including a bread oven, for which only the door survived in the back of the ground floor hearth, a blocked bacon loft to the rear of the stack, and evidence of mullioned windows in the form of diamond-shaped sockets in the underside of the wall plates. Features surviving at that time were noted, such as the upper part of an early stair (leading from first floor to attic) which had some solid treads; early, wide floorboards in the first floor room of the east bay; and an early plank door. At the time of the report the building had an outshut to the rear; this was a later addition of uncertain date.
In 2006, after the building was listed, it underwent a major programme of repair, rebuilding and alteration. The building was stripped back to its timber frame and repairs were undertaken to this, including the replacement of two of the corner posts at ground floor. The building was also underpinned and amongst other works the brickwork infill at ground floor was replaced with reclaimed brick, with a small section in the front elevation being reused brick taken from the house. Internally at ground floor the brick stack was rebuilt, as was the chimney above the ridge line and the floor level of the most westerly bay was lowered. The roof structure over the two eastern bays was replaced. Whilst the extent of this restoration has resulted in the loss of historic fabric, it does not undermine the fundamental legibility of the building’s origins as a central-smoke-bay house with a later inserted stack and the house retains a significant proportion of early fabric to evidence this.
Details
Timber-framed smoke bay house, about 1600, with later inserted stack. Heavily restored and extended in 2006/7.
MATERIALS: the building is timber framed with red brick infill laid in English bond to the ground floor, and tile-hung above. The roof is clay tile and windows are hardwood.
PLAN: the building’s front elevation faces south. It is four bays wide, with the second bay from the west being a narrow bay – the smoke bay. The roof is pitched, half-hipped with a gablet to the west, and gable-ended to the east. The smoke bay is now occupied by a massive brick stack, a ground-floor entrance lobby to the south and a connecting passageway to the north, giving a lobby-entry type arrangement. The bays to either side of the smoke bay provide a single room each on ground and first floors. The east end bay is divided into smaller rooms and circulation space. To the rear is a two-storey early-C21 extension*, linking through to the original house on both floors.
The stair from ground to first floor is within the extension, and the stair from first floor to attic is in the easterly bay; both are modern (2006/7) but the latter replaces an early stair in the same position. The attics of the two east bays are interconnected, and these link through to the west end bay via the south side of the stack.
EXTERIOR: the south elevation has a ground and first floor window to each of the three full bays. The smoke bay has the front door surrounded by an open-sided porch at ground floor, and a small window above. The building’s historic origins are evident in its distinctive roof form, the position and size of the ridge stack, and the age of some of the timber frame exposed at ground floor. It is clear however that the building has been heavily restored externally in the regularity and character of the brickwork and tile hanging, and in the window joinery and porch, all dating from the early-C21 restoration.
To the rear much of the building is screened by the two-storey extension which runs across most of the north elevation. At first floor the link between the old and new is made with a corridor fully glazed at either end.
INTERIOR: much of the surviving timber frame is evident inside the building. At ground floor this is mainly in the floor frame. In the west end room this comprises a spine beam, which appears to be a reused timber (reused at the time of construction), based on the number of empty sockets in its length. The floor joists run north to south and are mainly historic, but some have been replaced to the south, where a stringer marks where a later stair was added (present at the time of the building’s 1975 recording) and has since been removed and the opening in the floor re-ceiled.
The room to the east of the stack has a large inglenook fireplace, and the rebuilding of the brick stack is clear from the appearance of the brickwork. This room was the historic hall – a high-status room, indicated by the spine beam and the floor joists being chamfered and having stepped stops, and being the only heated ground floor room. The joists are a mixture of early timbers and carefully matched replicas dating from the early C21. The east end bay now forms a study, utility room and lobby into the rear extension. In this bay the floor joists run east to west and are a mixture of old and new. The two openings in the rear wall of the early house, leading into the later extension (one in the back of the smoke bay and one in the east end bay) both have diamond sockets in the underside of the wall plate indicating the location of early windows.
The timber frame of the rear wall is visible from within the extension at ground and first floors. At first floor the framing is evident in the rooms either side of the stack, and there is a blocked mullioned window in the easterly room. There are large curved braces in the cross walls between the bays, and in some of the outer walls. Small back-to-back fireplace openings in the rooms either side of the stack appear to be original; certainly the stack at first floor and within the attic has not been rebuilt, the bricks being approximately two inches high. The east end bay contains the bathroom and hallway, with the stair giving access to the attic. The ceiling here contains both early and replacement timbers. Within the attic space of the two east bays the replaced roof frame is visible. The roof-framing of the smoke bay survives, as well as the blackened inside faces of the plastered bay partitions. In the west bay the original roof structure also survives; this is a queen-post roof with clasped purlins and curved wind braces.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the aforementioned extension is not of special architectural or historic interest.
