England's oldest inhabited timber frame house

[Penners]

I came across this fascinating website today, and thought that some of you might find it interesting. Scroll right down the page for floor plans, history and construction drawings.

http://www.fyfieldhall.com/

 

[jocelyn plummer]

So reminiscent of our much missed house in Walsingham but a truly lovely example of a house growing gracefully through the ages.

 

[Penners]

a truly lovely example of a house growing gracefully through the ages.

Rather like me, in fact.

 

[Flyfisher]

Fascinating article. It makes our house seem like a new build.

 

[Bayliss]

Wonderful building, even the Sheppard's hut looks lovely!

 

[skier-hughes]

Pity we could not have carried on dating ours, I think we stood a chance of competing, it definitely goes back to 1500's, and almost definitely goes back to 1300's, but alas that's as far as we got with the help we had.

 

[robgil]

To be fair guys there isnt much left of the original building bar the frame and a few other bits and bobs. People seem to have a fascination with wooden frames and lets be honest here , while interesting a wooden frame is only a small percentage of a buildings construction materials.

 

[Keithj]

A pal of mine lives in a timber framed farmhouse that dates back to the 13th century.

I asked him how much is original: nobody knows and the experts who've looked can't tell. It's been extended and altered much over the years. It's gorgeous, but I could never afford it.

 

[robgil]

Its a shame , it really is. I have seen a good few houses where daub infills have been removed and skipped to make way for plaster. Daub can tell so much about the people who lived there and the variations in construction materials across the country.You can even see a difference between different daub as it was made throughout history as walls have been repaired/rebuilt. It can also be repaired quite easily but I guess some people prefer plaster.
Another thing that is overlooked is the floor, we are quite happy to dig away at floors to lay limecrete however a lot of the time the original floor would have been the very thing we dig out. I wonder how much historically archaeology has been skipped with a digger digging out an old floor?

 

[88v8]

.. we are quite happy to dig away at floors to lay limecrete however a lot of the time the original floor would have been the very thing we dig out. I wonder how much historically archaeology has been skipped with a digger digging out an old floor?

How true. The concrete floor of our sitting room was dug out for limecrete - hand dug, but the end result is the same - and this revealed that the soil beneath was 'made ground', that is to say it was imported and not the native hard clay on which the cottage is founded. This, together with other features, told me that the room was originally the byre where the animals lived, and so when it was converted to living space in the 1800s the (contaminated) soil had to be removed and replaced several inches deep. I've recorded this fact, but no future owner will have the opportunity to see the evidence.

We also have a good deal of daub, some of it clearly applied by hand. The cottage was extensively worked in the 70s, thank goodness the architect involved seems to have been sensitive to originality.

Ivor

 

[worms]

...the room was originally the byre where the animals lived, and so when it was converted to living space in the 1800s the (contaminated) soil had to be removed and replaced several inches deep...

Why?

In the 1800s plenty of people were still sharing living space with their livestock, so would your previous occupants really have been that fussy about what was left beneath their floor?

Perhaps the years of accumulated muck had a value and was worth removing for more important use elsewhere? Or perhaps the original floor (flags? Cobbles?) was removed and the level made up? Or perhaps the floor level just needed raising up a bit? I guess we'll never know.