Building record FNN 025 - 18th century outbuilding at Carpenters

2015: Carpenters is a grade II-listed timber-framed and rendered 18th century house at the eastern approach to Finningham village alongside Green Farm – The famously well preserved Elizabethan base court built by the Frere family soon after 1593. The timber-framed and weatherboarded outbuilding to the west of the house adjoins the boundary with Green Farm and contains two store rooms of unequal size a single fireplace heating the larger to the south. Despite its diminutive size, extending to 9.7m in length by 4.1m in width, the building is of considerable history interest. It consisted of two phases, with the larger room representing a complete 18th century building of just 5.8m in length and the smaller an extension of the early 19th century. The 18th century structure was design with a loft and is at least broadly contemporary with the house, but its initial purpose is unclear. It may represent a small bake house, stable or even Finningham’s original school room as the house was occupied by a schoolmaster in 1839. The excessive depth of the exposed brick plinth in the rear wall, which continues to at least 0.8m below the present ground level, may relate to a demolished oven. The building was depicted as an open-sided cart lodge on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey of 1886, but was extensively refurbished shortly afterwards to create the present enclosed sheds. This refurbishment included the renewal of the entire roof structure (leaving the original roof-plates intact) and the replacement of most of this 18th century framing. The early 19th century extension appears to have been significantly lower initially, but was raised in height to meet the new roof and provided with a loft of its own. The weatherboarding of its northern gable trains substantial traces of the red ochre with which was painted before the application of tar in the late-19th century. – offering an historically important insight into the appearance of local outbuildings before tar became readily available. The 18th century structure appears to have been rendered externally rather than weatherboarded, but only a few laths now survive (S1).