Building record DRK 055 - The Gables, Rattlesden Road

The Gables is a grade II-listed timber-framed and thatched cottage which is set back from the Rattlesden Road but occupied a conspicuous position on the edge of a large medieval green until its enclosure in the mid-19th century. At the time of the Drinkstone tithe survey in 1838 it was owned and occupied by a local butcher in conjunction with a narrow strip of pasture which now forms the property’s garden.
The Schedule of Listed Buildings dates the house to the ‘early-17th century or earlier’. It reflects the standard domestic layout of the period, with a central hall between a parlour to the north and a service bay to the west, but is arranged on an L-shaped plan in a manner normally associated with urban locations. The parlour dates from the mid- or late-15th century and originally adjoined an open hall on the site of the present hall, which is a reconstruction of the mid-17th century, while the service bay incorporates an unusually small and historically interesting frame which probably dates from the beginning of the 15th century. This frame formed a single bay of just 9.5 feet in length by 10.5 feet in total width (2.9 m by 3.2 m) and its western gable incorporates at least one re-used stud with a rare lap joint of the 12th or 13th century. It may have been designed as the service bay of a narrow medieval hall but precise analysis is hampered by the loss of its southern elevation and eastern gable. The narrow western gable survives intact in the modern kitchen, with intermediate studs between its original timbers reflecting the later fashion for close-studding, although its tie-beam is hidden behind modern render on the upper storey. The southern end of the present western gable is part of a 17th century extension that appears to have been rebuilt at a later period and is accordingly of less historic value (S1).