Description

MORETONHAMPSTEAD FORD STREET (south side) SX 7586 Moretonhampstead 8/137 No. 17 - 10.3.77 - II

House with shop inserted later, and now just a house again. Circa late C15 or early C16, floor inserted in circa late C16 or early C17 and remodelled in C18, shop inserted in late C19 and rear wing added in C19. Granite rubble with roughcast front, dressed granite end stack with later brick shafts. Rendered brick rear wing with bitumen coated slate roof. Thatched main roof with gabled ends abutting adjoining buildings. Probably 3-room-and-through-passage plan, certainly with open hall and lower end, probably divided by low screens, but uncertain whether originally open to the roof at higher end as well. In late C16 or early C17 axial stack inserted at lower end of hall backing onto passage, and hall floored. The early C19 lower end remodelled or rebuilt to form separate house, No. 15 (q.v.). In late C19 hall divided into 2 with shop in front room with shop front inserted, and domestic entrance to rear room from doorway in former passage now a carriageway to left. Probably some time a rear service room in 2-storey wing was added. 2 storeys. 2-window range. Late C18 or early C19 2-light windows with glazing bars, centre light casement on original hinges, ground floor right-hand window centre light replaced. Ground floor left small late C19 shop front with bead moulding to timber frame with cornice and 3-light casement window and integral 1/2- glazed door to left. Inside carriageway to left a fine granite ashlar back to stack with chamfered cornice and plinth, which originally backed on to through- passage. To side of stack a board partition with a C18 door with 2 fielded panels, which is main entrance to house. Interior: access to roof only from No. 15 and, therefore, only 1 truss seen in roofspace. This truss is smoke-blackened on lower side, against hall stack. Principals, probably jointed crucks, with morticed apex, cut for diagonal ridge and with triangular block in apex angle, morticed cambered collar which has been cut in half and threaded purlins. The thatch over hall appears to be smoke-blackened as well. The hall stack has thatch weatherings. Cruck, probably jointed, closed truss over upper end of hall. One bay hall and relatively large inner room. Plank and muntin screen at higher end of hall with chamfered muntins with high run-out stops and wide planks. Longitudinal hall ceiling beams with hollow step stops resting on projecting head beam of screen which is plastered over. Also 2 chamfered half- beams, one at front, the other against rear wall, with hollow step stop. Blocked fireplace at lower end of hall. C18 or early C19 framed stair inserted into backs of hall. C18 2-panel door on first floor. This is a late Medieval house with much surviving original fabric and an interesting later development. The last changes were in C19 and it has remained remarkably unaltered since then, both externally and internally. It is one of the earliest buildings in Moretonhampstead and one of only 4 or 5 With Medieval smoke- blackened roof timbers. Surviving Medieval roofs are rare in towns.

Listing NGR: SX7528286113

External Links

• Wikidata Q26389475

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