Building record ASG 024 - High Pastures, Great Ashfield

1988: Grade II listed building: Former farmhouse, early C17 or earlier. 2 storeys. 3-cell cross-entry plan.
Timber-framed and plastered. Asbestos-sheeted roof, once thatched. An axial chimney of painted brick, probably C17, and another single flue chimney to left. C19/C20 casements. Two entrance doors in C20 glazed porches. Interior not examined (S2).

2007 Architectural Survey: The house was constructed as one living unit which has since been subdivided into two cottages. The main part of the farmhouse was built in the early 17th century. It is small and plainly-built. On the east side is an early or mid 19th century farmyard whose buildings are mainly built of clay lump. There appears to have been a small barn on the eastern side of the yard which has now been demolished. The plan of the house consisted of four cells or units; from south to north a parlour, a hall, a service room which may have been used as a kitchen, and a further room at the north end which may have been a dairy. Between the hall and the parlour is a large chimneystack with back-to-back fireplaces. The second chimney appears to have been built or rebuilt in the 19th century. There are single storey extensions, both at the north and south ends, each of them probably built in the 20th century.The present front door is on the west side of the house and was likely the original entrance leading into a cross-passage. There may have been another door opposite on the east side. The original staircase winds around its newel post against the back of the chimneystack. On the first floor landing is the only original window in the house. The central beams are exposed in the ceilings of the parlour, hall and dairy. The slightly earlier structure over the dairy has curved stops with bars at the ends of the chamfers. This was probably the hall or the parlour of the earlier house. Timber-framed walling is exposed in one of the bedrooms. A hatch into the roof space above the original newel stair gives access to attick space which has been plastered and whitewashed out. The roof would have been thatched. There are roof trusses with principal rafters and collards and butted purlins with straight slender windbraces rising up to them. This type of design was introduced to vernacular buildings in the second quarter of the 17th century until 18th century (S1).