Description

SS 92 NE MOREBATH TIMEWELL HILL

2/135 Timewell House

5.4.66
II

House. Circa early C16 or earlier origins, remodelled in the C17 and altered and
extended in the early C19. Rendered stone with slate roofs the roof of the C19 block
behind a parapet ; rendered stacks.
Plan: The earliest part of the house is a single depth block, 2½ rooms wide and later
used as a service wing to the early C19 extension. The core of this block is a late
medieval open hall house probably floored over and remodelled in the late C16 with a
further C17 refurbishment. The full extent and plan form of this wing is hot
entirely clear and- it may have been truncated in the early C19 when an L plan block
was added, set forward from the wing at the right end. The L plan block has a
central entrance into a stair hall, 1 large principal room to the right and 2 smaller
principal rooms to the left with a rear left wing with a roof with a hipped end. A
C20 lean-to kitchen has been added to the rear of the hipped wing.
Exterior: 2 storeys. The principal front elevation (early C19) has a 5 window
originally symmetrical front with a moulded cornice and parapet and plat-band at
first floor level. Good Bathstone porch with paired Doric columns to the front and
paired pilasters to the rear. 2-leaf half-glazed front door recessed below a
segmental arch with a pretty semi-circular fanlight with glazing bars. 12-pane sash
windows throughout except ground floor right where 2 sashes have been replaced with a
Ham Hill canted bay window, either late C19 or C20, with a 12-pane sash in the centre
and 4 over 6-pane sashes in the outer lights. Sash windows to the left and right
returns of the main block including 2 adjacent pairs of 12-pane sashes on the ground
floor of the left return. The late medieval wing has a 4 window elevation to the
front with sash windows with glazing bars; left end stack and a C19 projecting
lateral brick stack on the front.
Interior: The late medieval wing preserves some interesting early C18 plasterwork on
the ground floor with a decorated cornice and egg and dart decoration over some of
the cross beams ; other crossbeams are C17 with cyma reversa mouldings and scroll
stops. The ground floor has a late C19 or C20 axial rear passage cutting through
some of the decoration. Decayed moulded plaster cornice to first floor room. 4
smoke-blackened medieval roof trusses survive below a later roof ; 3 of the trusses
are conventional early C16 collar rafter trusses but 1 truss (the second from the
left) is closely spaced to the first from left truss with a lower apex and has a yoke
supporting a short post with a tenon at the top. This truss may be earlier than the
others and suggests 2 phases to the open hall arrangement.
The interior of the early C19 block has an open well stair with a C20 replaced
balustrade with heavy stick balusters and ramped wreathed handrail. Plaster cornices
and early C19 joinery survives; the chimneypieces are introductions in an C18 style.

Listing NGR: SS9608425781

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26593201

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)