Building record 1099900000 - 28 HIGH STREET NORTH

Grade II. House. C15, altered and rebuilt C19. Contains one cruck truss and fragment of another. Exterior now of red brick with off-set eaves. Old tile roof, flanking brick chimneys. 2 storeys, 2 bays. 5-pane sash windows with cambered heads. Central half-glazed door has shaped leaded lights and C19 doorcase of moulded pilaster strips, panelled frieze and moulded cornice hood on scroll brackets. Later C19 extension to left is of 1½ storeys with C20 tiled roof and one bay of barred wooden casements: 3-light and single light to ground floor, 2-light in gabled semi-dormer (B1).
2 cruck trusses with crossing double or multiple blades. Source: Roger Evans, Buckinghamshire CC (B2).
Historic building recording and sampling for dendro-dating in May 1990 identified the building as an early 15th century three-bay house with two-bay hall at the west end (bays 1-2) and a probable chamber at the east end (bay 3). The two internal cruck trusses survive. The central open truss (Truss 2) is arch-braced with a low tiebeam and chamfered king strut and supported a square set ridge beam ('type D'), it probably divided the service area from the main part of the hall as traces of a ground floor partition survive as stave holes in the tiebeam. Truss 3 is only visible at ground floor level and also has a low tiebeam. In the 17th century an upper floor was inserted above the hall and a large stone fireplace and chimney inserted between bays 1 and 2. In the late 18th or early 19th century the external walls were rebuilt in brick and at a later date the roof above bays 2 and 3 was raised substantially. 7 core samples were taken for dendro-dating but all the timbers were elm and undatable. The building is dated on stylistic grounds as truss 2 closely resenbles a dated truss from Woolstaston in Shropshire. See report for detail (B3).