Description

TQ 53 NW SPELDHURST STONE CROSS S

7/595 Stone Cross Farmhouse

GV II

Former farmhouse. Mid/late C15 with early C17 improvements, refurbished in
the mid C19, some C20 modernisation. Timber-framed. Ground floor level is
underbuilt with Flemish bond red brick with some burnt headers. Framing above
is hung with peg-tile. Brick stacks, the oldest one on a stone base, and
brick chimneyshafts. Peg-tile roof.

Plan and Development: L-plan house faces south. The main block has a 2-room
plan. Main living room to left heated by an axial stack backing onto the
entrance hall-cum-dining room to right. Small service rooms are partitioned
off to rear of the living room and stack. 2-room plan crosswing at right
(east) end projects forward. Rear kitchen and front parlour both have outer
(right side) lateral stacks. Former lean-to bakehouse on left (east) end with
end stack.

The present layout is essentially the result of C19 and C20 modernisations.
House originated as a 3-room-and-through-passage plan open hall house, maybe
of Wealden type. Plan has been somewhat altered at ground floor level, it
shows more clearly on the first floor. The hall occupied the present entrance
hall and extended into the living room a short distance. That short distance
was originally the through passage. The hall was originally open to the roof
and heated by an open hearth fire. The rest (the western end) of the living
room was the service end and was floored from the beginning. The inner room
end was also probably floored from the beginning with the solar or master
chamber at first floor level. Some of the original structure remains here but
it was much rebuilt in the early C17 as a parlour crosswing. Both rooms in
the crosswing have stacks but since neither have exposed fireplaces it is not
clear which were heated although it seems likely that the front room was. The
hall fireplace and floor may have been inserted a little earlier, in the late
C16 or early C17. The stack originally served the hall, the present entrance
hall, but it was turned round in the C19 or early C20. At that time the front
doorway moved to its present position and the present living room was made by
removing the crosswall at the lower end of the hall.

House is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace of the main block.

Exterior: Irregular 2:1-window front. Most of the first floor windows are
C19 casements. The rest are C20 including the canted bay windows to left
(serving the living room) and at the front end of the crosswing. These bay
windows have diamond panes of leaded glass. The others have rectangular panes
of leaded glass including the extra one at ground floor level left end to the
lean-to extension there. Front doorway is at the right end of the main block.
It contains a C20 2-panel door behind a contemporary gabled porch. Similar
windows to rear although some here contain diamond panes of old leaded glass.
Rear doorway to the back of the old passage and it contains a C19 panelled
door under a flat hood on shaped brackets. Main block roof and crosswing roof
are gable-ended.

Interior: Is largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations although where
early carpentry is exposed it is relatively well preserved. At ground floor
level there is evidence of the medieval house service end in the room behind
the living room. Here the first floor is supported on joists of massive
scantling including the gap (defined by a trimmer) for a stair or ladder
access to the first floor. (It is filled by late C16/early C17 hollow
chamfered joists.) The basic frame of the crosswall to the hall is also
exposed here and contains an original oak door frame; an elliptical headed
arch with moulded surround. Its position suggests it was one of a pair into
buttery and pantry this end and it may be that the axial wall between the back
room and front living room is original. If so (it is plastered over like the
ceiling in the living room) it would be a very rare survival in a medieval
house of this status. On the hall side of the crosswall a moulded and
brattished rail is exposed to rear at about present first floor level.

On the first floor there is evidence of the original crosswall at the upper
(crosswing) end of the hall although the close studding at ground floor level
appears to be early C17. At the other end, the original service end, the tie
beam and end posts remain but the chamber that end has been enlarged over the
passage to the back of the stack. Anomalies between the hall and service end
might be taken of evidence for Wealden form but it is not conclusive. The
medieval roof, as far as can be seen, appears to be relatively intact. It is
4 bays, 2 over the formerly open hall, and one each end. It is of tie beam
trusses with crown posts. The closed trusses each end of the hall had curving
down braces which show at the former service end. The open truss over the
hall is missing its arch braces but the massive tie beam has a hollow
chamfered soffit, octagonal crown post with moulded cap and base, and 4-way up
braces (the longitudinal ones now removed). A-frame common rafters of large
scantling. Roofspace over the hall was inaccessible at the time of this
survey but the timbers are said to be smoke-blackened from the original open
hearth fire.

Evidence of the late C16/early C17 flooring of the hall comes from the small
room behind the stack. Here exposed joists across the former passage are
chamfered with runout stops onto a chamfered and step stopped beam. No
carpentry is exposed in the entrance hall, the former hall. The fireplace was
also blocked here. It has been partly dug out but not completely and only
some of the stone back shows.

Little carpentry is exposed in the early C17 crosswing. The partition between
the entrance hall and rear room (the present kitchen) is close-studded and the
owners have photographs of the front end stripped of its tile hanging and
showing that it to is of close-studded framing. The fireplaces are blocked
and the only exposed beam in the front parlour is chamfered with step stops.
Front section of the roof is 2 bays of tie beam trusses with clasped side
purlins and windbraces.

Stone Cross Farmhouse is an interesting medieval hall house close to another,
Stone Cross (q.v.).

Listing NGR: TQ5225138989

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26551413

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
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)