Summary

House, originally built in the mid- to late C16 as a smoke-bay house. Extended to the east in the 1930s, including a cross-wing, and in about 1971 when a rear extension and cross range was added at the north-west.

Description

House, originally built in the mid- to late C16 as a smoke-bay house. Extended to the east in the 1930s, including a cross-wing, and in about 1971 when a rear extension and cross range was added at the north-west.

MATERIALS: a timber-framed smoke-bay house with large daub panels (part infilled with brick) extended to the east and north-east in brick in the 1930s and 1971 respectively. Red tile roof coverings, brick chimneys and leaded windows.

PLAN: originally a smoke-bay house with an east solar, a central hall heated by a smoke-bay, and then an unheated service end possibly with an adjacent cross-passage; alternatively, there may have been a lobby entry next to the smoke bay. A chimney was probably added in the C17 and the upper floor subsequently fully floored over with a winding staircase placed next to the chimney. The service passage has been removed and the service end and central hall now form a dining room whilst the solar is now the entrance hall. At the east, added in the 1930s, are two sitting rooms and an office whilst to the north-west, added in 1971, is a kitchen, laundry room, cloakroom and bathroom. A corridor with a staircase now runs across the rear, providing access to five bedrooms and the 1930s bathroom on the first floor. A second bathroom and airing cupboard were added to the west end of the corridor in 1971.

EXTERIOR: the original range of the mid- to late-C16 smoke bay house is orientated east to west under a hipped roof with a gablet. It has a timber frame with daub panels part infilled in brick at the east. The frame of the south façade is now (2022) painted black with the panels painted white and resting on a stone plinth. The frame has, from west to east: a straight down brace in the westernmost upper panel; narrow panels possibly associated with an infilled doorway or windows; two large panels, including a straight down brace to the upper panel, now with inserted 1930s four-light leaded casement windows; the narrow panels of the smoke bay; and then 1930’s mock panels (painted cement render and brick) to the former solar, which have straight down braces and now contain a 1930s boarded door with moulded fillets and two leaded casements. Beyond is the 1930s eastern extension, which is of lesser interest but an integrated part of the current house. It is built of white-painted brick with an upper and lower four-light casement to the first bay and then four-light casements to the cross-wing which is a single bay wide under a hipped roof. Two tall brick chimney stacks with clay chimney pots rise above the red-tiled roof. The west elevation of the house is now faced in mock panels (cement render and brick), concealing the timber frame behind it. There is a two-light casement to the ground floor and a pair of two-light casements to the first floor. Extending to the west from the rear extension is a single-storey addition with a three-light leaded casement window and hipped tiled roof. The north (rear) elevation of the house is entirely faced in white-painted brick; the 1930s and 1971 additions, which are of lesser interest, have an irregular composition of casement windows, variously of two, three or four leaded lights, and a half-glazed back door. The east elevation of the 1930s cross-wing has a four-light and three-light leaded casement window to each floor.

INTERIOR: the front door now leads into the former solar (now entrance hall), which has a lowered floor and a ceiling with a chamfered axial beam and chamfered joists. At the west is an inglenook fireplace with inserted 1930s brickwork and two probably original plank and batten doors with wrought-iron strap hinges and wooden latches. The right-hand door, nearest the fireplace, leads to a wooden winder stair to the first floor (now floored over), whilst the left-hand door leads into the hall. The partition between the hall and service end of the house has been removed to form a single room, now occupied by a dining room. This room has a lowered concrete floor* and a ceiling with longitudinal wooden joists and a chamfered cross-beam resting on chamfered posts; several of these beams have been replaced with later machine-cut timbers and there are some re-used timbers. At the east is a brick fireplace added in 1971 with a timber lintel flanked by wooden cupboards within which C17 brickwork to the chimney can still be seen. The ground floor of the 1930s east cross-wing contains two living rooms that have straight machine-cut joists to the ceiling and faux Georgian fireplaces, as well as an office. The north-west extension contains a kitchen with 1970s units* and other fixtures and fittings*, a laundry room with a modern sink unit* and a cloakroom. A 1930s corridor links the laundry room and office at the rear of the house. The original frame and daub panels are partly revealed on this side of the house running along the former external north wall. Leading off the rear corridor is a bathroom with late-C20 and early-C21 sanitary ware* and 1930s winder stairs providing access to the first floor. There are five bedrooms and two bathrooms leading off the first-floor landing. At the east end of the first floor are two bedrooms and a bathroom to the 1930s extension. These bedrooms have boarded doors with wooden latches as well as late-C20 sanitary ware*, fixtures and fittings*. The main bedroom has a 1930s fitted cupboard. The 1970s rear extension has a bathroom and airing cupboard with late-C20 and early-C21 sanitary ware*, fixtures and fittings*. Three bedrooms are situated over the original ground floor rooms of the C16 house and appear to retain some historic plank-and-batten doors with wrought-iron strap hinges. The smoke bay and the roof structure are visible dividing these rooms. There is a clasped purlin roof with queen struts, although some 1930s machine-cut timbers have also been inserted. The wall plates, straight down braces and timbers to the large panels are also partly visible on this floor. Several of the rooms have late-C20 sinks, fixtures and fittings*.

EXCLUSIONS
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest. However, any works to these features which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent (LBC) and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority (LPA) to determine.

History

In the medieval period, many people lived in houses which were open to the roof and heated by a fire situated within a hearth on the floor. These ‘open halls’ were typically entered from a passage running between a pair of opposing doorways. On one side of the passage would be the service accommodation; the buttery and pantry. A screen divided this accommodation from the hall, which usually had a central hearth and open fire with smoke passing up through the rafters of the roof. At the ‘upper’ end of the hall was the high table, where the owner sat on a bench, possibly on a dais. A door at this end of the hall would lead through to the solar or private apartments. Masonry chimneys became a feature of farmhouses in the later C16 but were not generally built in cottages until later. In the transition from open fires to chimneys, a range of timber structures were used to separate smoke off from the rest of the house. A smoke bay was sometimes built as part of the original house from the mid-C16; the hearth under this bay heated the main room or hall. Masonry chimneys were then often later inserted within these bays in the C17, and as the house evolved a floor was constructed all the way across the upper storey. Smoke bay houses could also have a lobby entry next to the smoke bay instead of a cross-passage.

Wayside was built in around the mid- to late C16 as a timber-framed smoke-bay house; effectively an evolution of earlier open hall houses. It included, from east to west: an eastern chamber or solar; a smoke bay heating a main central room or hall; and then an unheated service end possibly with an adjacent cross-passage; alternatively, there may have been a lobby entry next to the smoke bay. The smoke-blackened timbers of the smoke bay can still be seen in the attic space. At a later date, probably in the C17, a chimney was inserted into the smoke bay; the original handmade bricks can be seen in a cupboard next to a later fireplace in the hall added in 1971. The whole of the upper floor was subsequently floored over and a small winding staircase was later placed in a narrow opening next to the chimney in the smoke bay and entered from the east. This may possibly have coincided with the conversion of the building into two cottages. A photo from about 1910 shows the south elevation with two front doors at that time. It also shows the building fully rendered with small white-painted casement windows, probably of C19 date. The windows were each of two lights further divided into two or three subsidiary lights by glazing bars. The render was removed by 1918, exposing the timber frame beneath.

Wayside appears to be shown on John Rocque’s map of Surrey of 1768, although the building outline is not completely clear. The house is not recorded on the 1843 tithe map for Chobham; only the tithable parts are shown and this area doesn’t appear to have been surveyed. However, it is shown on the 1870 OS map (1:2500). In the 1930s several alterations and additions were carried out to Wayside. The ground floor in the former solar at the east end of the building appears to have been lowered at this time. Access to the staircase next to the chimney was floored over at first-floor level and part of the roof replaced with a slightly lower ridge line at the eastern end of the building. A major extension was constructed, which included a playroom (now sitting room) and lounge beneath two bedrooms at the east side of the building, as well as a ground-floor corridor, staircase, and a workroom beneath a bathroom and first-floor corridor, running along the rear of the building and thereby providing access to three bedrooms now in the original C16 house. A lean-to containing a utility room and outside toilet was built extending to the rear of the west end of the building. The western part of the house contained a kitchen and dining room as well as a staircase at this time. The white-painted casement windows appear to have been entirely replaced in the 1930s with square-leaded casements, probably in order to seek a more traditional ‘Tudor-style’ appearance. In 1971, further changes were carried out. The ground floor of the western part of the house was lowered and replaced with a cement floor, a staircase in the kitchen taken out, a partition wall removed to make the kitchen and dining room into a single larger dining room, a new brick fireplace inserted into the chimney, and the rear lean-to demolished and replaced with a new extension. This extension was built with a kitchen, utility room and cloakroom on the ground floor, and a bathroom and airing cupboard on the first floor. The windows in the west elevation of the house were also replaced.

The 1870 OS map shows four buildings set around a yard to the south-west of the house. These may also appear on John Rocque’s map of Surrey of 1768, although the building footprints are not clear. One of the buildings now remains; a rectangular timber-framed building set on a brick plinth with a clasped-purlin roof structure, waney-edged timber-board cladding and tile-covered roof. A number of the timbers have been replaced but it may originally have been built as early as the C18. It was probably adapted to form a motor garage in the 1930s when boarded double doors, the timber cladding, and a square-leaded north casement window were added, possibly together with the timber-boarded west door. By 1914, most of the other buildings around the yard had been demolished. However, in about the 1930s, another gabled timber-boarded garage was constructed followed by a stable and tack room, constructed by adapting recycled prefabricated timber panels in 1967, both of which currently (2022) remain extant.

Reasons for Listing

Wayside, Chobham, a mid- to late-C16 timber-framed smoke-bay house, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a significant and legible evolution of the medieval open hall house type with a smoke-bay built as part of the original house in the mid- to late C16;
* for the surviving C16 timber frame, including large daub panels, down braces, ceiling timbers and clasped-purlin queen-strut roof;
* for notable features surviving internally relating to the evolution of the house, such as the chimney, adjacent winder stairs and plank and batten doors with wrought-iron strap hinges and wooden latches.

Historic interest:

* as a smoke-bay house which demonstrates nearly 500 years of history and development from the C16 onwards.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26484825

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
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  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy