Building record 1121800000 - WILLOW VALE FARMHOUSE, 39 WEST END

Grade II. House. C17. Timber framed with regular rectangular panels of brick infill. Asymmetrical cruck truss exposed in right-hand gable. Thatch roof, half-hipped to left. Brick stacks to right gable and centre. 1½ storeys, first floor in thatch. 5 bays of 3-light leaded casements. Lobby entry with C20 door to right of centre, round oven projection to rear. RCHM II p. 274 Mon.17 (B1).
Building recording carried out by John Chenevix Trench and Pauline Fenley identified the building as two surviving bays of a three-bay cruck house, possibly built to house a demesne tenant of one of the Steeple Claydon manors. Shortly before 1600 the hall was chambered over, a stack inserted and a wall painting executed in the original first floor chamber. In about 1630-1640 the eastern end bay was replaced in box-framing, the stack doubled and two further box-framed bays with unusual dropped ties, added at the east. Timber samples submitted for dendro-dating in 1989 and 1990 suggest that the building was constructed in 1448 or shortly after (B2).
2 cruck trusses, half-hipped, in end wall, with curved blades. Source: R.W. Evans, BCC (B3).
Building survey and dendro-dating carried out in January 1989 suggest the building was constructed as a five-bay hall house from timbers felled in spring and summer 1448. Two cruck-built bays survive from the first phase. These comprise a chamber (bay 1) with an original floor, and a hall bay (bay 2); at least one further bay existed, either for a two-bay hall or for a service bay. The western hip cruck (truss T1) has a type ‘V’ apex and the other (truss T2) a type ‘C’ apex. Shortly before 1600, a chimney was inserted against T3 and the hall floored over. A wall painting of formal roses in monochrome on the chamber side of T2 is thought to date from this
period. In the mid-seventeenth century the lower end (bays 3, 4, and 5) was rebuilt in box-framing. See report for detail (B4).