Description

HADLOW THREE ELM LANE, GOLDEN GREEN
TQ 64 NW
6/97 Easterfield Farmhouse
-
II

Farmhouse. Circa 1700, minor C19 and C20 modernisations. Ground floor level
is Flemish bond brick with decorative use of burnt headers on sandstone
footings, first floor level is timber-framing clad with peg tile; brick stacks
and chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof.

Plan: Single phase T-plan house. The main block faces south west. It has a
2-room plan, one room either side of the central entrance hall which contains
the staircase. These rooms are heated by gable-end stacks. These are the
principal rooms, the dining room and parlour but it is not clear which was
used as which originally. A 2-room plan block projects at right angles to
rear of the centre of the main block and contains first a small unheated
service room then a kitchen with a gable-end stack. It is lower than the main
block. There are integral lean-to outshots to rear of the main block each
side of the rear block service room which seems to have served principally as
a connecting lobby between the front and back rooms. Although the house was
once divided into 2 cottages the original layout is well-preserved. It
appears to be a single phase house and is a neatly planned house for circa
1700. The rear block kitchen fireplace was rebuilt in the C19 and, it seems,
before that there was a smoke bay rather than a stack.

House is 2 storeys with attics in the main block.

Exterior: Symmetrical front fenestration with 4 ground floor windows, 3 at
first floor level and 2 attic dormer windows with hipped roofs. The windows
are mostly C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars although a couple of the
window frames (e.g. ground floor right end) may be original with flat-faced
mullions. The central doorway has an original solid frame (bead-moulded with
overlight), door and flat hood on shaped brackets. When the house was divided
into cottages there was another front door to right but this has been removed
and replaced by a window. Moulded timber eaves cornice and the roof is gable-
ended, Similar windows to rear and the kitchen is gable-ended.

Interior: Very well-preserved. The original dogleg stair has square newel
posts with bead-moulded corners, a moulded flat handrail, closed string and
the balustrade is filled with vertical panelling. Most of the ceiling beams
are plain chamfered but those at first floor level in the main block have
runout stops. Where framing is exposed it shows various carpenter's assembly
marks. The front room fireplaces are brick with plain oak lintels, that in
the right room larger than the one to left. There is a great deal of original
joinery detail around the house. The front room doors off the ground and
first floor landings are 2-panel doors and there are contemporary cupboard
doors.

In the kitchen the first floor does not extend to the chimneybreast. Instead
there is a narrow bay open to the roof with a framed wall on top of a
crossbeam at first floor level. This indicates that the kitchen originally
had a smoke bay which was later replaced by the present kitchen stack which
includes a bread oven, the housing of which projects to rear. The kitchen
block roof is carried on tie-beam trusses supported on jowled posts. It has
clasped side purlins. The main block attics are plastered and little can be
seen of the roof although it looks to be of similar construction.

Easterfield Farmhouse is a remarkably well-preserved small farmhouse of circa
1700. The plan and structure are intact along with a great deal of original
joinery detial.

Listing NGR: TQ6334048453

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26644981

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)