Description

SY 09 SW AYLESBEARE

3/5 Withen Farmhouse
-
11.11.52
- II

Farmhouse. Early or mid C16 with major late C16 and C17 improvements; some C18 and
C19 refurbishment. Plastered cob walls on rubble footings, parts are repaired with
brick; one brick, one cob stack, both topped with C20 brick.
East-facing range apparently adapted from an original 3- or 4-room and through-
passage plan. Since the collapse of the service end due to floods in 1973 the
through-passage is now at the left (southern) end. The hall has a projecting rear
lateral stack and the small inner room has an axial stack. The unheated fourth room
beyond at right (northern) end maybe a C17 addition. This room has since been sub-
divided. The present main entrance now leads into an entrance lobby made from the
inner half of that room. The floor has been removed from the outer half and it has
been converted to an agricultural store. The former service end was apparently not
in domestic use before its collapse since the former list description describes a
barn at that end. Now 2 storeys throughout.
Irregular 5-window front of various late C19 - early C20 casements with glazing bars
and includes a 5-light window to the former hall. All 4 first floor windows have
thatch eyebrows over. The 3 doors, one to the passage, one to present entrance
lobby and third to the agricultural store are all late C19 - early C20 and the
present main door has a C20 porch of corrugated plastic with a monopitch roof. The
right end front wall (to the store) and much of the first floor front has been
rebuilt with brick. The roof is gable-ended and the upper part of the right end
wall has been rebuilt with timber framing. The rear has similar C19 casements with
glazing bars although the one to rear of the hall contains rectangular panes of
leaded glass.
Interior although the interior was modernised and rearranged in the C19 the
survival of the early plan and the early features which can be seen suggest that the
refurbishment was superficial. The partition on the upper side of the passage is a
C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen; its muntins are chamfered with cut diagonal stops
and it includes a blocked shoulder-headed doorway. The hall has a late C16 - early
C17 axial beam, soffit-chamfered with step stops. The inner room also has an axial
beam but it is soffit-chamfered with runout stops, possibly late C17. Both
fireplaces are blocked. The fourth room crossbeam and half-beams are soffit-
chamfered with scroll stops and are C17. There is a later brick partition under the
crossbeam. The roof over the main house is inaccessible and the trusses coincide
with the first floor partitions. However the roof can be seen over the agricultural
store where there is a side-pegged jointed cruck truss and a hip cruck. The rest of
the roof maybe C16 or C17 and it may be smoke-blackened over the hall.
Withen is a little-modernised farmhouse with much of its long structural history
hidden by later plaster.

Listing NGR: SY0301490949

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26434195

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

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)