Building record 1157300000 - EASTGATE HOUSE, EAST END

Grade II. House. C15 range of 3 bays to right with C16-C17 cross wing to left and altered C18 range, originally barn, to rear. Timber frame, brick infill mostly renewed C20 with some herringbone panels, rubble stone plinth and pier below second cruck truss. Old tile roof, formerly thatched, with brick chimney to centre of cross wing. 1½ storeys with taller cross wing; 4 main bays,that to left gabled and with additional half-bay to left. Gabled bay has C20 3-light leaded casements and C20 door with board hood on shaped brackets to right. C15 bays have irregular single and 2-light similar casements, and garage doors in right bay. Right gable has one exposed cruck blade, the other missing. 3 other cruck trusses inside, the second with one arched brace to collar. Cruck bays have original purlins and curved wind-braces. Cross wing has large central stack, and stop-chamfered spine beams with some original joists. Barn range to rear is timber framed, now with brick infill, formerly weatherboarded, and has curved braces to tie beams, and C20 roof (B1).
1 cruck truss with elbowed blades truncated above collar, passing the collar but with no upper structure. Source: A.G. Taylor (B2).
Building survey and dendro-dating carried out in March 1989 suggest the building was constructed as a four-bay hall house from timbers with a felling date range of 1446-1450. The middle two bays (bays 2 and 3) are separated by an open arch-braced cruck truss and were obviously the hall, with much smoke blackening remaining on the roof timbers. The presence of the fourth bay is demonstrated by the extension of the ridge piece 9ft beyond T4. Presumably there were chamber and service bays at the ends, but the use of the surviving bay 1 is uncertain. All four remaining cruck trusses have saddle apexes (type ‘C’). It is interesting to have evidence for a four-bay house which, despite the simple character of the surviving timberwork, is likely to have been the home of a reasonably wealthy individual.
In the sixteenth century, a fifth in-line bay was added beyond bay 4, and probably provided additional service accommodation. In the seventeenth century, a two-bay timber-framed cross-wing with a front gable was built, replacing bay 4 and part of bay 5 and extending back as bay 6. In the early eighteenth century, part of the walls of bay 6 were replaced in brick with a plat band at first floor level, probably following structural failure of the south gable of bay 6. In the late seventeenth or eighteenth century, a timber-framed barn/cow-shed was added behind bay 1. This bay was converted into a barn with high threshing doors to the front. In the nineteenth century, a lean-to was added in the corner between bays 5 and 6. See report for detail (B3).