Listing Text

WYMONDLEY REDCOATS GREEN
TL 22 NW (South side)
Little Wymondley

4/160 Redcoats Farmhouse Hotel
27.5.68 (formerly listed as
Redcoats Green Farmhouse)

GV II*

House. Late C15, probably for John Sturgeon (High Sheriff in 1479),
altered in later C17 and lower W wing added, W part elaborated as new
front and old parts tilehung in late C19. Timber frame roughcast on E
but completely red tilehung on S and W, red brick ground floor to W wing
and red tilehung 1st floor. Steep old red tile roofs. An unusual C15
2-storeys and attics house lying N-S with continuous jetties on 2 sides
and N end. 3-cells plan with parlour at N end, hall in middle, and
smaller service room at S end. Lower L-shaped 2-storeys later W wing
adjoins for much of W wall. W front has projecting LH gabled part with
2-storeys canted bay window and bargeboards. 2 windows to upper floor
and gabled open timber porch in angle with projection. 3-lights window
to RH, with sashes between mullions. Half-glazed door. E side of old
part has mullion-and-transom windows, 3 gabled dormers, projecting
chimney near N end with 2 diagonal shafts and a bell attached, and a
lower kitchen extension at right-angles. External chimneys on W side of
old house, with bases now obscured by W wing, rising between the roofs
with a group of 5 diagonal shafts in-line above the hall fireplace, and
3 shafts on the W side of the parlour. Interior unusual for the large
number of original heated rooms and the high quality of craftsmanship
and ornamentation for a house of modest size and never a manor house.
The hall, 31ft x 18ft, retains at S end one of the 2 doors of the former
screens passage, with hollow-chamfered 4-centred head and sunk
spandrels. At N end of E wall a 2-lights window with ogee arris
mouldings to rectangular mullions reset above opening formerly leading
to an external stair turret serving hall and parlour with an internal
lobby. An C18/C19 window in E wall in position of original window. Hall
fireplace, with enriched mouldings of hollows and rolls, supports date
c.1470-80. Parlour fireplace on E wall offset to S as if for dresser,
has stone jambs and brick relieving arch. Cross-beams and axial beams in
both rooms. Unheated undivided service room at S end has indications of
a former stair against the S wall with window to light its foot.
Original 2-lights window on E wall with arched heads to lights and
ogee-moulded frame. 1st floor originally open to the roof. Partitions
not over those below. Larger N room's importance emphasised by carved
enrichment of hollow-chamfered jambs of stone fireplace with square
fleurons. N wall has range of 4 2-lights windows set high in wall with
hollow chamfered frames. Open truss to N of fireplace of 2 chamfered
orders returning onto 2 solid brackets. Chamber over hall smaller with
stone carved fireplace with dragons in the spandrels. Blocked mullioned
3-lights window. Late C17 changes involved a new staircase, partitions
and attics. Former parlour reduced in size with painted bolection-
moulded panelling, and space provided for internal stair (replaced in
late C19). Transverse moulded beam in hall a C17 replacement. E chimney
stack enlarged for new W wing, and single-storey timber framed E kitchen
added. (RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL2075926591