Architectural Detail - 16 Great Green

The house is built of timber framework on a brick sill with rough cast render to the outside. The main roof is tiled with old red handmade tiles. The exterior is manly rendered with the exception of the northern gable which is brick and timber clad.

Many of the ground floor wall timbers are concealed or have been replaced with brickwork over the years due to decay. The truss posts are largely concealed but those which are visible are jowelled at the top. On the ground floor the sampson post supporting the central section of the truss ceiling beam is jointed into the axial beam on the southern side only.

The axial beam to the centre bay is butted up to it which is indicative of it having been added at a later date. The opposite truss is now concealed by the fireplace and chimney stack but within the roof space it is clear that this chimney has also been added later as the tie beam and collar run right through the chimney. It seems to date from the 17th Century and was built with 2 flues serving the central and northern bays. The chimney brickwork appears to be the original in the roof void with narrow mortar joints, whilst the stack outside has been rebuilt probably during the 19th Century. To the side of the chimney is a void where the chimney tapers. This void is surrounded by wattle and daub partitions.

The ground floor has a back to back fireplace, the opening to the northern bay is wide but has had a series of fireplaces fitted in the past reducing its width. Currently there is a curved back brick built fireplace, similar to that seen elsewhere in the village and appearing to date from the early 18th Century.

The fireplace to the central bay has a wide opening with enclosed salt box and appears to have also had access to a bread oven which was housed in the adjacent outshut. There is also a recess to the side brickwork.

The wall plates in the central bay have edge halved scarf joints which were no longer in use by the mid 17th Century. The purlins in the roof have bridled scarf joints and are jointed at the collars with pegged half joints.

In the roof space the original rounded rafters can be seen widely spaced which would have supported at thatched roof. The rafters are pegged at their apex. Additional rafters have been fitted in between to provide the extra support needed for when the thatch was replaced by heavier hand made clay tiles.

There are no signs of smoke blackening to the roof timbers so it appears unlikely that the fire was situated in the middle of the open hall. The gable wall at the northern end is timber clad whilst the southern gable is rendered with evidence of an external chimney which has now been removed.

Above the southern central bay truss there is a limewashed wattle and daub infilled panel which confirms that the centre bay was open to the roof and was an open hall.

The two upper rooms of the crosswing would have been independently accessed probably by a ladder until a stair turret was added when the hall was floored in and the chimney inserted. This allowed access to be made by a single staircase. The oak flooring in some of the rooms appears to be original. The windows to the upper rooms are dormers set on top of the wall plate. These are likely to be an original feature although would have been thatched. A dormer would have been added to the floored in hall at a later date. There are a number of old oak and elm doors and cupboards with “H” hinges. The cupboards fill the voids around the chimney.

The outshut at the rear has a catslide roof and was added probably in the 18th Century, one of which would have housed the bread oven.

In the roof space of the outshut, the original outside wall is still visible showing the vertical studs and wattle and daub infill. This confirms that the roughcast render is a later alteration to the exterior.

Outside is a timber framed barn which is set on a different alignment to the house. There is no obvious reason for this. It is of post and truss construction and timber clad.

The roof was thatched with thatch still present beneath the corrugated iron.

The posts are jowelled and of the same profile as those visible in the house showing that both buildings are contemporary. The barn is divided into two at present but the purlins run straight through confirming that it was divided at a later date. The wall plates have edge halved scarf joints.

The timberwork dividing the two sections is unusual in that the roof section is not vertical. It is clad in timber and maybe the original southern gable end infill panel from the house which was removed and reused in the barn as the profile and studwork is the same as that retained.

The internal timbers show evidence of having been limewashed which suggests animal occupation.

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