Description

HADLOW ASHES LANE
TQ 64 NW
6/3 Grimbles
3.3.76
II

House, once 2 cottages, originally a farmhouse. Late C16/early C17 (maybe
earlier origins), converted to cottages in the mid/late C19, reunited and
modernised circa 1976. Essentially timber-framed but much of the ground floor
level is underbuilt with C19 Flemish bond brick employing decorative burnt
headers; framing still survives at this level in the rear wall. Above first
floor the framing is clad with peg-tile; C19 brick stacks and chimneyshafts;
red tile roof including bands of shaped tile.

Plan: 4-room plan house facing south. Parlour at left (west) end heated by
an axial stack backing onto the adjoining unheated room. It and the large
room right of centre are now united to one. The room right of centre is
heated by an axial stack backing onto a small unheated right (east) end room.
This is the C19 cottage layout, each cottage having one heated and one
unheated room. Both stacks are C19. There were 4 cells before and it is not
exactly clear where the earlier fireplaces were. The most likely site is in
the room left of centre where no early carpentry is exposed. It is a large
space for fireplaces. Maybe the stack was timber-framed. If it were here
then the house assumes a conventional late C16/early C17 layout; parlour to
left, hall/kitchen in the middle and unheated service rooms to right. The
back door is original providing direct entry into the hall/kitchen. Present
front doorway is directly opposite. However, the central joist of the
putative hall/kitchen suggests there was once an axial partition here. Maybe
the stack only heated the parlour and there were 2 service rooms. The right
end room might be an addition to a 2-room plan house.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and secondary lean-to outshuts on the
left end and across the rear.

Exeterior: Attractive symmetrical 4-window front of C19 iron-framed casements
containing glazing bar patterns of intersecting hexagonal panes, Central
doorway contains C20 door behind a contemporary gabled porch. Tall and
steeply-pitched roof is half-hipped each end and contains 2 front gabled
dormers with C19 wavey bargeboards.

Interior: The basic structure is essentially late 016/early C17. External
framing is exposed inside the outshots at the parlour end; large framing with
curving tension braces, and the end wall includes a blocked mullioned window.
No carpentry is exposed in the room left of centre and the slender joists of
the unheated right end room look like C18 or C19 work. The hall/parlour has
heavy scantling joists, the centre one with mortises from a former partition.
The wide fireplace is C20, the joists run through to the crosswall behind.
The parlour axial beam and the one in the chamber above are chamfered with
step stops. The attic rooms are plastered but it seems there are tie-beam
trusses with clasped side purlins. The right (east) bay roof might be
secondary since the purlins are at a different level to those over the rest of
the house.

Listing NGR: TQ6215649549

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26540824

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)