Building record 0016401000 - PUTTENHAM PLACE FARMHOUSE

Dimensions - Length 0022 m Width 0010
Plan Form - H shaped.
Probably built by the Puttenham family, & may have been the manor house (B1).
Location (B4).
Grade II. C15 or C16 core with additions encased in C18 and later brick, with some exposed timber framing. Central hall with cross wings north and south and further wing to south (separate cottage). West elevation: 2 window centre with door and modern wood porch, one window gabled wing to left hand side with pattern of vitrified headers, first floor band course, one brick arches with projecting key and impost bricks. Modern casements; right hand gable with modern casements and brick to centre part, far right hand gable blank of recent date. South elevation - right hand part has first floor band course and flint plinth having small inset stone carved with quartrefoils. Left hand part recent 3 casements, centre door with wooden porch. East elevation - far left hand gable with first floor band, 4 openings above with gauged arches and moulded hoods. Left hand gable and 2 storey porch of recent brick work, one casement per gable. Porch open on ground floor with concrete lintel. Recessed section of hall to right with exposed timber framing including 2 full height posts, one on sarsen stone base. Right hand gable rendered over timber framing. North elevation - left hand part rendered over timber framing with brick and lath and plaster infill, projecting stack in centre with 2 tiled offsets. Right hand part C18 brick with first floor band course and 2 blocked windows. Roofs of plain clay tiles, north wing and hall roofs with higher ridge from south wing. Large central stack with moulded sailing course, 2 plain stacks to south wing. Interior has extensive timber framing visible including heavily moulded wall plate and arched braced trusses above hall where first floor beam and timber corbel details appear C17. (RCHM I 267 Monument 2) (B2-3).
A visit by the Vernacular Architecture Group led to a building survey which noted that the house is a two-bay hall (8.2m x 6.3m) flanked at the N end by a solar wing, jettied and of one build with the hall. Mortices in the S principals suggest an in-line bay, now replaced by another much wider transverse wing. There are padstones under (or beside) each principal post. The S wing was turned into a double pile in 1700s by a parallel range which formerly had Dutch gables. The article includes a synposis of ownership. The Puttenham family having been descended from the de Turvilles who held Penn in the 12th century in the Honour of Leicester. In 1305, Roger De Puttenhamm held the manors of Penn and Puttenham. His grandson, Robert (born c. 1370), made a wealthy marriage which is believed allowed the Manor House to be built. The manors were split amongst 3 sons and eventually the house was sold to a Thomas Butterfield in 1595. In 1692 the house was licensed as a meeting house. It is believed that whilst in the ownership of the Butterfield family the chamber over the hall, the axial stack and the S wing were inserted. The house had become a principal farm as part of Lord Howe's estate by the mid 1700s (B5).