Description

1.
TL 95 SE
33/496

BRETTENHAM
OLD SCHOOL ROAD
THE POPLARS

II

2.
Former farmhouse. Late C15 and C17. Timber-framed and rendered; roof, with corru-
gated iron sheeting over old thatch, is hipped on the left, half-hipped on the right.
1½ storeys. An internal chimney-stack with a plain rebuilt red brick shaft. 2 gabled
dormers to front with old 2-light leaded-paned casement windows. One 3-light and
one 2-light C20 metal casement window to the ground floor, and a single-light window
to each side of the entrance door. 3-cell plan, now with lobby entrance; frame in
5 bays. The centre of the house contains 1½ bays of a former open hall with crown-
post roof. The tie-beam and crown-post of the open truss have been cut away, but
the collar-purlin remains, with mortices for braces and extensive smoke-blackening
below thick layers of whitewash. Later plastering covers the rafters and collars.
The chimney-stack, which appears to be in 2 sections, has been inserted into the hall
against the line of the former open truss. Beside it, diamond-mullioned housings for
a hall window in the rear wallplate. The inserted ceiling in the one remaining full
bay of the hall has a main beam, with wide chamfer and curved stepped stops, resting
on a short post against the stack, similarly finished. At the left end, the former
service bay, still divided into 2, has a C20 replacement ceiling. To the right of
the stack, a marked break in the wallplates and a 2-bay section with exposed ground-
floor ceiling: joists on edge. All visible studding is substantial and widely-spaced,
some of it with small modern studs inserted between the original ones; no middle rail;
tension braces in the end walls. The building, which stands on a moated site, is
currently empty and derelict.

Listing NGR: TL9739454130

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26528185

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)