Ashdon Street Farmhouse (EHER 35414)

15th century timber-framed building.

2014. Building survey. Ashdon Street Farmhouse was likely built in the mid 15th century as an open hall house with an in-line wing framed with an interrupted tie-beam wall to the north. To the south is a two storey cross-wing jettied on both sides (east and west). All the close studded timber-frame is axe finished oak with wattle and daub infill panels. The cross-wing and hall retain their crown-post roofs in good condition. That over the hall is smoke blackened and has an octagonal crown post with moulded capital and pedestal. The cross-wing crown post is much plainer. The two bay hall has external display bracing and full height windows on both sides. The high end wall is pegged for a dais and bench and there were doors and screens either side that led into the formal rooms (parlours). A staircase in the north-west corner led up to the solar. The in-line wing has a cantilever floor that creates the cross-passage and has two centrally placed service doors leading to the Pantry and Buttery. The upper room was framed for a staircase in the north-west corner. The speres screen was formed from two short draught screens near the doors and a wide open arch with a moulded bressummer supported on octagonal posts for which only the mortices and mouldings remain. A large brick firestack of thin 40mm bricks was inserted into the north-west corner of the hall against the cross-passage and supported an inserted floor above the former hall. The brickwork and carpentry indicate this was done in the 16th century. The upper part of the chimney was hidden away along with the crown post in a narrow bay upstairs. Another brick firestack was built against the south side of the cross-wing that served the eastern formal room and the upper chamber (solar). In the Late Georgian era, after about 1810, the house was completely renovated and remodelled. The in-line wing was given a new clasped side purlin roof, the older timbers indicating a crown-post roof was removed and the whole house retiled in grey slate, replacing clay peg tiles of which fragments were found. The bedrooms were given inserted lath and plaster ceilings and scantling partitions to form a corridor. A 17th century floor frame was reused to create a storage attic over half of the cross-wing. Although Listed as a 17th century building, the presence of a smoke-blackened crown-post roof in the Hall, and clean crown-post roof in the cross-wing suggests a 15th century date for this property. The Hall and Service range are in-line, with many of the timbers being of elm. The north end truss of the Service Range has an interrupted tie. A chimney now sits at the north end of the Hall, partially obscuring a moulded elm beam at the low end of the Hall. The Service range has been re-roofed. The south (high) end of the Hall has apparently been truncated, there being no south truss, although a mortice is present in the south end of the collar-purlin to take a brace to the former south post. The cross-wing was jettied at both ends. The north post of the central truss, now serves as the post to carry the end of the collar purlin from the Hall. The crownpost is far less delicate than that in the Hall. The west side jetty has been underbuilt, and the southern end extended, probably in the Georgian period. <1> 2015. Dendrochronology. Three elm (Ulmus spp.) timbers and an oak timber from the Hall and Service ranges gave felling dates over a period from Spring 1446 to Summer 1447, suggesting construction of this part of the house in 1447, or within a year or two after this date. The Cross-wing contained timbers felled during Spring 1467 and Spring 1468, suggesting construction of this phase in 1468, or within a year or two after this date. The dating of the elm at this site is of great importance to dendrochronology as it represents only the third site in the country where it has proved possible to date elm, and the first by the author. <2>