Description

TQ 54 NE
5/186

HILDENBOROUGH
PHILPOTS LANE (south side)
The Old House

(formerly listed as Marden's Cottages)

20.10.54

GV
II*
House. Late C15 or earlier origins with a high quality remodelling of the early C17; late C20 repairs and rear addition. Framed construction, the first floor tile-hung; peg-tile roof; brick stack.

Plan and Development: complex evolution. The present arrangement is approximately L-plan and faces north. The main block is two rooms wide, the left hand (east) end with good early C17 features is roofed on a west-east axis, the right hand (west) room is part of a two-cell west crosswing with a circa late C15 frame. The two rooms in the main block are heated from C17 back-to-back fireplaces in the axial stack with a lobby entrance facing the chimneybreast. The room has a rear (south) outshut and the crosswing has an outshut along-its east side. The north cell of the crosswing was originally open to the roof timbers with a smoke bay at the north end. The south cell was always storeyed, probably with a stair in the south west corner. The crosswing may be the hall and storeyed lower end of a small late medieval house to which a high quality C17 wing has been added with the axial stack introduced at the junction, giving the present lobby entrance layout. However, some features of the frame of the east end suggest that it may have been the medieval hall block, to which a late C15 parlour crosswing was added, the hall block then thoroughly remodelled, raised, and partially rebuilt in the early C17. The existing plan is largely that of the early C17 and includes a C17 stair in a projection to the rear (south) of the stack. The crosswing has been extended by a single-storey C20 one-room plan addition adjoining at the south west.

Exterior: west end two storeys and attic, two storey crosswing. Roof half-hipped at the left end and hipped at the right end; stack with four staggered brick shafts. The early C17 features of the north (entrance) elevation are unusually well-preserved. Asymmetrical three window front, the crosswing to the right with a lower roofline and gabled to the front, an early C17 two storey bay window to the left with a lean-to roof and a pentice above the ground floor bay which extends over the front door to the lobby entrance. This has an early C17 ovolo-moulded door frame and probably co-eval plank door. The bay windows have ovolo-moulded transoms and mullions and are three-light to the outer face, one-light to the returns, the returns of the first floor window blocked with tile-hanging. The bay has a hand-made brick plinth. C17 ovolo-moulded two-light first floor window to the right of the front door. The gable end of the crosswing has nine-light early C17 ribbon windows to the first and ground floor with ovolo-moulded mullions. All the windows are glazed with diamond leaded panes, some of the casements are original and preserve their C17 catches and scrolled fastenings. The right (west) return has a C20 door and three-light casement into the crosswing outshut. The left (east) return has original C17 ovolo-moulded mullioned windows to the ground and attic storey, the first floor window is a C20 replacement. The rear (south) elevation of the main block has C19 or C20 windows, the stair projection with a lean-to roof in the centre, the south east outshut has been glazed on the south side in the C20 with French windows.

Interior: rich in early features. On the ground floor these are mostly circa early C17 except probably for the joists in the south room of the crosswing with a trimmer beam in the ceiling of the south west corner. The north room of the wing has a chamfered longitudinal beam, step-stopped at the end with runout stops at the north end and exposed joists. The C17 brick fireplace has an original oak lintel. A later partition has been introduced in the wing, creating a passage out of the north room giving access to the east room. The early C17 east parlour is very complete with an ovolo-moulded stopped longitudinal beam, exposed joists and a fireplace with curved brick corners to the fireback and an ovolo-moulded lintel. The sole plate of the frame of the rear (south) wall is grooved for wattle and daub infill. The fine early C17 dog-leg staircase retains its original newel posts and handrail. It originally had no balusters. The chamber over the parlour also has an ovolo-moulded stopped longitudinal beam, and a large original fireplace complete with lintel. The wall-framing is close-studded but preserves some unexpectedly large curved tension braces: these along with evidence that the stair projection involved cutting through earlier framing on the rear wall, the rough finish of some of the wall posts, and two wall plates to the east end frame suggest that it is an early C17 rebuilding of an earlier frame. The chamber over the south room of the crosswing has evidence of an unglazed three-light window with diagonally-set stanchions in the west wall. Both the first floor rooms in the crosswing have wall framing of massive scantling with curved tension braces.

Roof: the crosswing has a crown post roof construction, the post buried in the partition between the two rooms. The post is tall, unmoulded and appears to be of square section with concave braces to the collar purlin and one visible convex brace to the tie-beam, there may be a second brace concealed behind lath and plaster. At the north end of the north room redundant mortises in the wall plates and collar purlin mark the depth of the smoke bay, the common rafters above in the roofspace are heavily sooted. The rafter couples have halved collars and the whole early roof construction sits below a later roof. The roof over the east end is largely concealed but one clasped purlin truss is visible.

The Old House is an evolved house of late medieval origins, with high status C17 internal and external features.

Group value with the barn to the west (q.v.).

Listing NGR: TQ5527248813

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547126

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]