Description

TQ 53 NW SPELDHURST THE GREEN (east side), LANGTON
GREEN
7/484 Old Birchetts including front
area railings

GV II

House. Early/mid C17, enlarged in the C18, refurbished in the C19. Timber-
framed. Ground floor underbuilt with Flemish bond red brick with decorative
burnt headers, framing above is hung with peg-tile. Brick stacks and
chimneyshafts, the original one with a base of coursed sandstone. Peg-tile
roof.

Plan: House is end onto The Green to the west north west, say west. It has a
3-room plan. Small front end room with lateral stack projecting from the
north side. Larger middle room with large axial stack to rear. Unheated rear
service room.

Front 2-room section is the C17 house but the front rooms was originally an
unheated service room. The stack there was inserted in the C19. Main living
room behind has an original stack. Rear service room, now used as a kitchen,
added in the C18. It may be that the front room was once a shop since there
are separate doorways to the 2 front rooms.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace.

Exetrior: Front gable-end has a central window to each floor. Ground and
first floor have C19 12-pane sashes and the attic window is blocked with peg-
tile. Front doorway to right contains a C19 6-panel door with fluted doorcase
under a gabled hood. Moulded timber cornice at first floor level (below the
tile hanging). The gable has attractive C19 bargeboards, cusped and
brattished. Only the front section of the south side is exposed (rear behind
the adjoining Parish Hall). It has a 2-window front of 12-pane sashes with
another 6-panel door similar to the front one. Ground floor brickwork shows
various blockings and straight joins from an earlier window and doorway
arrangement. The north side has various C19 and C20 casements. The roof
steps down over rear section which is also gable-ended.

Interior: The early carpentry structure is well-preserved for the main part.
Wall framing however is plastered over. In the C17 section the beams are
chamfered, some with scroll stops. Large C17 fireplace is sandstone with
chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel. Roof over C17 section mostly rebuilt
above tie-beam level in the C19 but the end trusses show that it was of
clasped side purlin construction. C18 extension to rear is 2 bays. Its beams
are chamfered with runout stops. Wall posts have formed jowls and roof of
tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins and raking struts.

Small front garden partly enclosed by C19 cast iron railings with ornate spear
finials.

Old Birchetts is an attractive house which has had little C20 modernisation.
It is the oldest of a good group of attractive listed buildings facing onto
The Green.

Listing NGR: TQ5435539273

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26533462

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

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  For the Record
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)