Description

TL 73 SW WETHERSFIELD LOWER GREEN ROAD
(east side)

1/192 Wright's Farmhouse
18.5.78

GV II*

House. C14, altered in C16 and C20. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with
handmade red clay tiles. 2-bay hall facing SW, with late C16 axial stack in
right bay. Parlour/solar bay to left, with C20 single-storey extension to rear.
3-bay crosswing to right, C16 or earlier. Main range of one storey with attics,
crosswing of 2 storeys. Ground floor, 3 C20 casements. First floor, 3 more, of
which 2 are in gabled dormers. C20 door in gabled porch. Roof of main range
has hipped gablet at left end. Large wood-burning hearth facing left; smaller
hearth facing right, and 2 on first floor, all with depressed arches of
brickwork, originally plastered, 2 stripped. The main range has sharply jowled
posts and heavy studding. The late C16 inserted floor in the hall comprises 2
chamfered longitudinal beams with lamb's tongue stops jointed into a chamfered
transverse beam with lamb's tongue-and-bar stops, implying the former existence
of a timber framed chimney in the right bay of the hall. The joists are of
horizontal section, chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, supported on pegged
clamps. The left (high) end of the hall has wide display braces, and a doorway
with 4-centred head to the parlour. Rebate for shutters of large hall window in
rear wallplate. The original floor of the parlour/solar bay has plain lodged
joists of large horizontal section. The roof is of crownpost construction, with
cambered tiebeam, cross-quadrate crownpost and all collars and rafters, heavily
smoke-blackened. (A report of 18.5.78 suggests that it is of hammerbeam
construction, which is not apparent at the time of survey, October 1984, but may
need further investigation). The crosswing has an original first-floor
partition between the middle and rear bays, and a framed ceiling, chamfered with
lamb's tongue stops, late C16 or early C17. The right wallplate of the
crosswing has a well-cut splayed and undersquinted scarf, suggesting a C14 date,
but the studding and bracing are more typical of the C16, indicating a C16
rebuild of an earlier structure. One panelled oak door with cockshead hinges,
c.1600, probably introduced. This is an exceptionally well-preserved early
medieval hall house, of unusual historical interest because of its completeness.
RCHM 56.

Listing NGR: TL7393131278

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17557528

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5