|
Highwell |
|
|
Description |
|
Highwell was still thatched in the 1960s. There is a two storey addition to the rear elevation, and the single-storey northern end has been modernised (see picture below). The original house was of three bays and principal posts with long tapered jowls are all visible. There are the remains of an aisle of 2' 3", (the cill extends outwards from the bay post to support the aisle post). There are wide, flat, longitudinal joists that extend as a jetty. A small central first-floor window with a single rounded mullion, is visible within the lofted space to the north. There may have been a lean-to in the south western elevation-the visible timbering is not appreciably weathered. The roof construction is of pairs of collared rafters, pegged at the apex, without any longitudinal purlins. There are remains of daubed partitioning to the apex in the central bay, heavily sooted on the faces into the bay. The roof timbers are sooted over the southern bay, and where visible in the central bay. At the southern end it is clear that the roof has been extended over the lean-to, to a hip with a high collar-this part of the roof is clean. A sooted length of hip rafter has been aligned along the ridge towards the southern end of the central bay. ConclusionsThe type of roof construction and the evidence for a single aisle would suggest a date of about 1400 for this house. It had a single-bay open hall. The solar had an end jetty, and the service end (south) was much the largest bay. The front door is in the right position for the original opposing door ways at the low end of the hall. The sooting pattern on the rafters suggests that initially the central partition did not extend to the apex of the roof. It is likely that there was an intermediate stage when the fire was set back against the partition and the smoke confined with a framed hood. Subsequently a large stack was built into the hall, against the low end truss, and the flooring of the rest of the hall formed the small room now accessible east of the stack at first floor. The flooring of the southern bay, with its slender, chamfered joists, seems contemporary with the stack, and extended into the aisle, enlarging the ground floor room. Possibly contemporary with the stack was the reconstruction of the lean-to in the south western elevation, giving a storied bay, and extending the earlier roof to a new hip. There appear to have been two phases of access-from the first floor of the early house, and by a self-contained and closed-off stair. There seemed to have been upper access from this stair into what was possibly storage area to the rear. There is no indication of when the lean-to at the north east end was created, although with the end jetty and first floor window it was unlikely to have been original. This house makes a significant addition to several single-aisled medieval houses that have now been identified in the Ouse valley area. |
|
These notes have been compiled from survey reports prepared by Dr Annabelle Hughes. The full reports have been deposited in the Sussex Archaeological Society Library, Barbican House, Lewes where they can be consulted by researchers. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The house in the early 1900s |
©2007 Sussex Archaeological Society
