Description

ST OO NE KENTISBEARE
8/91 Wressing
-
II
Detached house, formerly cottages, but originally a single farmhouse. Mid C19
alterations and additions. Rubble masonry front wall, the rest of cob on stone
footings, all roughcast; hipped thatched roof, the rear wing half-hipped. 4-room,
baffle-entry plan house; hall and 2 smaller rooms to the left of lobby, with a lower
wing to the rear of the right-hand room. Stair turret to rear of axial stack, and
opposite baffle entry. The hall is of jointed cruck construction; the smaller rooms
to the left of the hall, which appear to have been unheated, were re-roofed in the
C18, but they retain earlier features at ground floor level. The kitchen was
probably situated to the right of the entrance. Axial stack with brick shaft. 2
storeys.
Front: 4 window range with rusticated quoins; first floor with 2 and 3-light
casement windows, some of them C19, and one late C20 window in addition; ground
floor with 2 casement windows of 2 lights, and 2 of 3 lights. 2 adjacent front
doors mark the position of the original lobby entrance. C20 door and windows to
left hand end; 2-light casement window to right-hand gable wall with late C19 or
early C20 lean-to below, slate-roofed with some brick. Rear: 2 small 2-light
casement windows, one to the stair turret, at first floor level, probably in
original embrasure. All others late C20. Rear extension undergoing alterations at
time of resurvey visit (September 1985). C20 windows to rear wing, with 2 C19
opposing side doorways.
Interior: the 2 front doors, which served separate cottages, give access to the
original lobby with (to the right) a chamfered beam with mortices for muntins (now
removed) and (to the left) evidence of a wattle and plaster partition, both of which
extend from front wall to axial stack. One and one half ceiling axial beams both
chamfered with hollow step stops, to hall; hall fireplace with side oven, and (in
tile rear wall) a salt ledge with architrave (fluted pilasters and round-headed arch
with keystone). Set in the wall opposite the fireplace is a former cupboard (now a
service hatch beteween this and the adjacent room), with architrave containing putto
in tympanum, with the legend 'Remember Thy Creator in the Days of Thy Youth' around
the round-headed arch, and another, 'Whilst We Think well, and think to mend, Time
passith away and Death's the End' painted on canvass to the door. Rear wall of hall
with fitted cupboard, cyma recta and dentilled cornice with panelled pilasters and
fielded panelled doors. Dividing the two left-hand rooms is a chamfered beam, only
partially visible.
Right-hand room with one chamfered axial ceiling beam, much eroded, but apparently
unstopped. First floor: one C18 panel with Lord's Prayer, much redone in pencil.
Roof: 2 jointed crucks to either end of hall, apex morticed and pegged (Alcock's
Type F2), collars not visible, the trusses much reinforced, and quite clean. Other
trusses later, probably C18, of A-profile.

Listing NGR: ST0606209071

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400354

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, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)