Description

WYMONDLEY RAILWAY SIDINGS
TL 2127 Little Wymondley

11/157 Wymondley Bury
27.5.68
GV I

Manor house, now a farmhouse. Early C14 aisled hall house, floor and
chimney inserted in hall in C16, brick cased and W wing after 1908.
Timber frame, cased in red brick, steep old red tile roofs. A 2-storeys
U-shaped building facing N on a secluded moated site. Wings extend to
rear. Aisled construction of 3 bays, the W bay only floored from the
beginning, and a 2-storey unaisled E crosswing. 'Raised aisle'
construction with truncated arcade posts in open truss carried on
transverse beam as at Warden's Hall at Merton College, Oxford. Crown
post roofs above. Hall of 2 bays with large stack built in E bay leaving
a cross-passage behind it. Parlour is storeyed W bay, ground floor of E
wing has C16 service doorways but fine solar on 1st floor. N front has
low eaves to central part, 2 storeys E gabled wing, and 2 storeys and
attics W wing. Large internal chimney rises through roofslope. Entrance
beside E wing by old studded plank door in round arched entrance.
Rectangular bay window to RH, shallow canted bay to E wing, 2 small
gabled dormers on roofslope and large one over bay window, 3-lights
leaded casements to 1st floor. Large projecting chimney on E side of E
wing, and internal chimney to S extension of that wing. Bell under
timber hood on W wall of W wing. Interior has exposed framework of the
aisled hall with herringbone pattern timber infill to close-spaced studs
at upper and lower ends of hall. Cellar below W bay with alcoves in
walls. Heavy C16 fireplace beam in hall has chamfered and roll
mouldings. Recessed with shouldered lintels at 2 levels in back of
fireplace. Hall floor carried on 2 chamfered longitudinal parallel beams
with hollow stops. Massive arcade posts with hollow moulded chin to
jowls and square-section straight braces. Moulded caps and bases to the
truncated posts of the open truss. Transverse beam is a C16 replacement.
Hall central crown-post octagonal with moulded cap and base. Plain
crown-posts in end walls. Decorated crown-post in 2-bays E wing. W bay
of hall range hipped with gablet. The W wall of the W bay closed by
passing braces from aisle wall to tie-beam. Mercer comments that the
ambiguous function of the ends in conjunction with the structural
details suggests an early date for the building. Mr. Farris says that
the documents suggest this is the house called Somerhalle erected after
1373 and before 1400. (RCHM (1911)149: VCH (1912)189: Eric Mercer
English Vernacular Houses London (1975)171-1: Pevsner (1977)243: RCHM
Typescript: inf Mr. Farris).

Listing NGR: TL2167827074

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17529113

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey