Building record THE 071 - Willow House

The 3-cell layout of the farmhouse is typical for the 15th century and onwards into the 16th century. The ‘high end’ or more important end of Willow House was found at the south end, indicated by the Parlour and Solar chamber above. The average-sized open hall formed the centre of the house, and twin service rooms with a service chamber over them were found at the north or ‘low end’ of the house. The twin service doorways have shouldered arch durn doorways. Their outer arches were formed of one piece of curved timber, and the inner arch with small, applied spandrels. The service chamber was used for storage rather than living accommodation. It is highly suggestive by the placement of the service staircase on the west side of the house that the house faced east from the outset. The front and back doorways of the house were aligned in a cross-passage. At the near centre of the Hall there was an open hearth. There was probably a dais of some kind located on the south wall of the house. The Parlour was entered through a doorway at the west end of the south wall of the Hall. An access doorway to a staircase was located on the opposite side of the same wall. Part of the original west-end door framing has survived and match the style of the service doorways. The Solar or bedroom chamber over the parlour would have had a window in the end wall to match the surviving diamond mullioned window in the north wall of the service chamber. The existing roof structure is gabled to the south and half-hipped at the north end. The roof structure is a later replacement. It was very typical for both ends of houses of this period and later to be half-hipped, but a combination of a gable and half-hip was also typical. There is evidence for a diamond mullioned window in the north end bedroom (service chamber) of the house. The shutter slide is not original but the example was introduced during the C20.
There are no evident early C16 alterations to the house compared to the late C16 to early C17 alterations. There is some tenuous evidence that a timber-framed chimneystack may have been inserted into the high end of the Hall.
The late C16 to early C17 had a significant impact on the character and form of the house