Description

SOUTH ELMHAM ST. JAMES THE STREET
TM 38 SW

4/58 Abbey Farmhouse
-

GV II

Former farmhouse. Mid to late C16. 2 storeys. Timber-framed and rendered
with C20 concrete plaintiles and decorated ridge tiles. An internal chimney-
stack with a short plain rebuilt red brick shaft, and a later end stack, set
externally. Various 3-light casement windows with transomes. On the upper
rear wall, one 6-light and one smaller 3-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window
and one 4-light diamond-mullioned window. Enclosed and gabled C20 porch in
colour-washed brick with a half-glazed door. The interior is in 5 bays, with
the middle bay completely altered: it now contains a hallway and a C20 stair,
but may originally have had a cross-entry, with a chimney-stack, to heat one
of the ground-floor rooms, backing on to it. At each side of the house is a
2-bay room with a very fine main beam, ovolo-moulded, with additional fillets
along the soffit: on the right, the joists with chamfer and lamb's tongue
stops, are also exposed, but on the left 2 sections of reused timber screen,
similar, but not identical, in design, with long panels and a middle rail,
have been fitted below the main beam to divide the room into 2. There is a
marked join in both wallplates above the central hallway area, and the 2
halves of the house may be of slightly different date. Above the left side,
the roof has plain queen-posts, with thin arched braces to the arcade plates
and collars, set on markedly cambered tie beams supported by heavy arched
braces. The upper ceilings are a later insertion here, but in the other half
of the house a straight tie beam and joists set flat on the upper floor
suggest that this is an original ceiling. The roof above is inaccessible.
The house is small but very well framed, with close studding and various types
of brace, arched, reversed and partly cranked.

Listing NGR: TM3167681090

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26635637

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)