Building record NDM 032 - Outbuilding at Hill House

Hill House was formerly an isolated farmstead in open, arable countryside. Both the house, which contains part of a high-status timber-framed open hall of the 15th century, and a nearby 17th century brick stable are listed at grade II. The outbuilding adjoins the entrance to the service courtyard immediately behind the house, and can be accurately dated to 1853 by an inscription on one of its tie-beams. It forms a single-storied red-brick shed with three internal compartments and a slate roof. It was largely stripped of original fixtures and fittings in the mid-20th century, but was almost certainly designed as a stable for driving horses with a central tack room and a separate storage shed. The agricultural animals would have been kept in another stable in the demolished farm complex to the south-west. The tack room retains a number of wooden harness hooks and the gault brick floors are unusually intact, but the insertion of two large vehicle doors to convert the building into a garage in the 20th C has destroyed much of the building's historic integrity. The rear wall adjoining Hill House Lane is of special interest, however, as it incorporates part of a 16th or 17th century wall that belonged to an earlier building on the same site, as shown on a survey of 1741 (S1).