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).