Building record DLL 026 - Whitehouse Farm, White House Farm Lane

Whitehouse Farm is a grade II listed timber-framed and rendered farmhouse of considerable historic interest. The main range of the building, which contains a hall and parlour of Yeoman status, dates from the late-16th century , but the service bay to its left (west) is an older structure that belonged to the previous house on the site. The walls of this earlier fragment were raised by five feet to match those of the new hall, and provide important evidence of the revolution in local houseing during the Elizabthan period. The building also contains evidence of an early alteration to its layout, with an unusual door in the back wall of its parlour blocked by the construction of a rear lean-to at the beginning of the 17th century; this change probably related to the removal of an original stair turret , but the 17th century lean-to is itself a rare survival. The 'bake-house' wing to the rear of the service bay is also an addition of the 17th century which created the L-shaped house shown on early maps , but this wing was unfortunately truncated in the late-20th century (S1).