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This large house set at right angles to the road was apparently built in 1631 for an unidentified yeoman-farmer with the initials WH. A short, probably contemporary south wing was raised to two storeys later, and in the late 17th or early 18th century, a outshut with a dairy and service rooms was attached to the north side. The building was sub-divided in the 19th century into four small dwellings, when it was necessarily augmented with further additions on the gable ends. In the 1980s, the building was converted to two dwellings: the present 39-40, and 41-42 Tathall End. |
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Description A substantial stone building on the east side of the street, which was initially built as a single house. A stream runs along the street close to the west gable end. A datestone, reset in the 19th century porch, and now illegible, once read WH / 1631. This date is entirely consistent with the internal architectural detail and the roof trusses. The plan is ‘L’ shaped, with the three major rooms at right-angles to the street, and an entrance on the south side. The position of the original entrance cannot be demonstrated in the present fabric but the existing position seems most likely, and a corresponding door at the rear now opens to the outshut. The eastern room has the lower part of a chamfered stone fireplace, indicating this was probably the parlour. |
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 The central room of the three has a heavy ceiling beam with tapered step and scoop stops, again characteristically of the early 17th century. It probably served as a ‘low hall’ of the house with a cross passage from the entrances and a stair. Its fireplace is a later insertion made probably when the house was converted to the four agricultural cottages. Its chimney lacks the stone ‘root’ of the others. A continuous lintel through the chimney breast indicates the position of the door to the front living room. Widely splayed door reveals central to the back wall now gives access to the outshut, and a forced door opening beside the gable chimney breast opens to the 19th century lean-to. |
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A fourth room, for domestic purposes, is attached at right-angles to the south side of the kitchen. It was originally single storey with attic space. Behind the kitchen stack, this narrow service room is also provided with a large fireplace, now much reduced in size, its fire lintel bearing the emplacement for a crane, and at the side, is what appears to be the remains of an oven.
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 The stonework of the gable end is now exposed and reveals the embedded verge for a 1½ storey structure. This is at approximately 57˚, and is set lower than the truss, T4 on plan. This mis-match between the level of the truss and the residual gable verge can only be explained by assuming the truss has been raised bodily when this wing was made into two storeys, the difference of pitch being taken up with thatch. |
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Sometime in the 19th century a gabled porch was added over the front door, and the datestone reset, and a small lean-to room with an external door with brick jambs was attached to the east gable. This probably happened in the last days of the farmhouse before the building was converted to four dwellings for farm workers. This subdivision remained until the building was considered ‘unfit’ and issued with a closing order in 1978, when it narrowly avoided demolition. It has subsequently been refurbished as two houses A small lean-to attached to the south wing gable at an unknown date was extended to the full width of the building in 1996 and given a pitched roof. A further utility room was also been added at the same time. On ground and on the first floor, the cross beams on the line of truss T2 are chamfered on one side only, proving that the east wall of the present stair is an original timber-framed internal partition. The roof trusses, as far as can be seen, are similar in construction. Principal rafters, 255 x 122mm rise at 57-60˚degrees, and they carry mortices for two tiers of threaded purlins braced by short straight windbraces. The short straight windbraces are identifiable throughout the roofs of the house indicating it is all of one build. The outshut has no dateable features, but the one visible truss in the bathroom of No 39-40 has a very heavy tie, rafter and strut suggesting an early addition to the building. The so-called ‘cellar’ or apple store is very probably a dairy or butter/cheese room, and is unlikely to have a full-height cellar below.
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Summary
The stonework above has been rebuilt, and a bressumer with mortices for a window has been reset, sideways, to provide the ceiling joists with a level. This timber was from a timber-framed building with wattle and daub panels. The central beam is rough and is probably also a replacement.
At the road end, now in Nos 39-40, is the original kitchen of the house. It has a large fireplace with splayed sides and large curved fire lintel enclosing two side seats and a dry niche in the back wall. The fire lintel has bar-and-ogee chamfer stops, as does the main ceiling beam (below), whose chamfers stop short of the north external wall, a feature for which there is at present no explanation. A splayed door opening opens to the rear outshut and a three-light window overlooks the road. 
The house was extended, probably still in the late 17th century or early 18th century, with a long outshut on the north side, which contained the dairy and other narrow rooms for preparing the farm products. One heavy lean-to truss is visible.
This south wing was later raised to the height of the main building by resetting the truss at a higher level, thus providing more upper floor space. This truss (truss 4 on plan above) has empty mortices for through purlins, windbraces and a square-set ridge plate, and was clearly once infilled with wattle a daub. The principals, pitched at 52½˚ are not properly jointed at the apex, and it has been provided with newer mounted purlins, and there is a large lap joint on the foot of one of the principal rafters for which there is no explanation in its present position. The truss is otherwise similar to those of the main house.
Windows throughout are of two and three-lights, generally with arris ovolo mouldings worked on the internal arrises. They are of late 17th or 18th century date. Some original ironwork of the late 18th or early 19th century survives. In the late 19th century the windows were glazed with diamond pattern leadwork, a style often associated with large estates, but this has now been replaced throughout with rectangular quarries. Some crown glass survives, especially in the upper rear windows.