Building record 1121000000 - RHENOLDS CLOSE, STEEPLE CLAYDON

Grade II. House. C15-early C16, altered and extended C17. Timber framed with plaster and whitewashed brick infill, some herringbone. 3 older bays to left have 2 cruck trusses, curved windbraces and ridge beam on yoke. C17 right-hand bay is box-framed with tiled rubble stone lean-to to front. Remainder of roof is thatched, with hip to left and small half-hip to right. Large stack with thin brick between right-hand bays, another smaller chimney between left-hand bays. Older section has 1½ storeys, C17 bay has 2 storeys and attic. Irregular leaded casements with diamond panes to ground floor. 3rd bay has original bowed 3-light window. 2 windows to first floor in thatch. Central ledged door. Tiled rubble stone oven projection in angle between 3rd bay and lean-to. Rear has similar casements and 2 doors, one a lobby entry. Sun and Royal Exchange fire insurance plaques on post at S.W. corner. RCHM II pp.274 Mon. 22-3 (B1).
Felling date of 1431 for cruck obtained by dendrochronological dating (B2).
Additional source: A.G. Taylor (B3).
Building survey and dendro-dating carried out in March 1989 and 1990 suggest the building was constructed as a two-bay hall house from timbers with a felling date range of 1431-6. Bays 2 and 3 of the present house formed a two-bayed open hall, probably functionally divided at ground-floor level. It is possible that the south-west end continued as a lean-to half bay, although no structural evidence for this has been found. The central open truss (T2) has a saddle apex (type ‘C’), and both end trusses (T1 and T3) were half hipped (type ‘V’ apexes). Both bays are smoke blackened, indicating that the centre truss (T2) was open at least above the tiebeam, although it has a tiebeam as well as a collar. Most of the original roof structure survives above purlin level. The house has no evidence of any original flooring. In the seventeenth century, truss T3 was removed and an in-line extension was added to the south-west end, of two-storeys plus attic (bay 4). A large rubble-stone chimney stack was built in the position of T3 and a lobby entry formed. Bay 4 evidently served as a parlour. At the same date or possibly later in the seventeenth century, the medieval hall was partitioned and floored over. A partition was built within the central cruck truss (T2) with two doorways, and bay 2 was partitioned along the axial beam. The house contains much original detailing from this period (although some features may be antiquarian restorations). In the eighteenth century, a rubble-stone lean-to extension was built to the NW of bay 4. Later in the same century an oven projection was added to the stack, blocking an opening in the lean-to.
During the nineteenth/early twentieth century a chimney stack was inserted in bay 2 and bay 1 was added, using much second-hand timber. See report for detail (B4).