Listed Building: EBBS HOUSE (279832)

COMBS BILDESTON ROAD TM 05 NW 2/57 Ebbs House (formerly listed as Ebbs Farmhouse) 9.12.55 GV II Former farmhouse, c.1530 with alterations of late C16 and c.1970. 2 storeys. Timber-framed and plastered; the front elevation is long-wall jettied with exposed supporting knee-braces and joist-ends. Plaintiled roofs; two axial chimneys of red brick with rebuilt C19 shafts of red brick. C19 and C20 small-pane casements. An original oriel window has a carved hammer head on the cill, flanked by a lion to left and a gryffon to right; the return face of the cill has on either side a shield bearing a merchant-mark, said to be that of one Hebbe, a wool merchant in Combs. The original entrance doorway has a 4-centred arched head whose spandrels are carved with leaves and a shield bearing the same merchant mark. The framing exposed internally is unmoulded: unchamfered floor joists, close studding and diamond-mullion window evidence; there was once a second oriel in the hall matching the one in the chamber above. Crownpost roof, mainly rebuilt in C20, but square posts with thin 2- way braces survive. The plan form of the original house is unconventional: the main entrance doorway opens into the service end, not the hall, and there is an additional cell here which may have been a shop. A wide open fireplaces with cambered lintel in the hall. The cross-wing to left was added in later C16, and there are 2 plastered arched fireplaces of early C17. Associated with an incomplete medieval moat. Listing NGR: TM0316455848