Description

WHITESTONE HALSFORDWOOD LANE
SX 89 SE

4/122 Trillow

- II

House. Circa early C16 origins, late C16 remodelling, some late C17 alterations and
extension, substantial repair in progress at time of survey (1985). Colourwashed
rendered cob, left end wall faced in brick; thatched roof gabled at ends, partly
concealed by tarpaulin; end stacks, axial stack, end stack to wing.
The present plan is 3 rooms and a through passage, the hall heated from a stack
backing on to the passage, a large inner room to the left with room to the right,
rear wing adjoining lower end room. The wing is 1-room in plan and is divided from
the lower end by an axial passage. Complex development. The present main range was
an open hall house of 3 rooms. A change in the plane of the front wall suggests tha
there may have been 2 phases of medieval development, possibly involving the
rebuilding of the lower (right) end. A first floor partition suggests that the hall
may have been part floored before the major remodelling and flooring when the hall
stack was inserted backing on to the passage giving a 3 room and through passage
plan, the lower end was altered as a parlour, probably contemporary with the building
of the rear kitchen wing. The oak roof timbers over the inner room were replaced in
the late C17 with elm.
2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window front with 4 gabled dormers and the front door to
the passage to right of centre with an old doorframe. Ground floor window right is a
circa early C19 20-pane sash, other fenestration of 1980's timber sashes and
casements in old embrasures.
Interior Smoke-blackened roof over the hall and lower end with 3 face-pegged jointed
cruck trusses complete with smoke-blackened raftes and thatch. The collars are
mortised into the principals which are mortised at the apex with a strengthening
piece below. Wide battens carry the thatch over the hall, at the lower end the
thatch is carried by an arrangement of twigs. The variation may be a function of the
different status of the 2 medieval rooms. One board from a smoke louvre survives in
the hall roof. The medieval rafters over the passage have been plastered between and
a partition has been introduced above the collar of the right-hand (lower) truss.
The replacement elm trusses over the inner room are not smoke-blackened and have
staight collars halved and pegged on to the principals. The lower end (right-hand)
ground floor room has a deeply-chamfered cross beam with scroll screen with step ogee
stops (2 planks and 1 muntin missing), the screen contemporary with the flooring
over. The hall has a large open fireplace with 1 stone rubble and I brick jamb and a
mitred chamfered timber lintel. The chamfered axial beam has ogee stops. Between the
hall and oak plank and muntin screen survives. A short section of first floor
partition above with studs and plaster infill is puzzling hall was part floored.
(John Schofield - MS notes, Nov 1985). The rounded stair turret at the rear of the
inner room has a timber stair and large 2-light timber mullioned window. The rear
wing has a large open fireplace with a timber lintel with run-out stops, the roof
trusses in the wing are pegged and probably late C17.
An evolved house of late medieval origins. The position of the medieval hall window
on the rear wall has been located during repair.

Listing NGR: SX8788493834

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26521756

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

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)