TQ 53 37 SFELDHURST BIRD-IN-HAND STREET, OLD GROOMBRIDGE 16/445 The Old Butchers 20.10.54 GV II* House, once including a butchers shop. Mid C17, refurbished, enlarged and rearranged in early/mid C18, some C19 and C20 modernisation, the latest in 1989 after a fire. Most of ground floor level is Flemish bond red brick with burnt headers on coursed sandstone plinth. The rest is weatherboarded timber- framing including part of the front and part at the back is hung with peg- tile. Brick stack and chimneyshaft. Peg-tile roof. Plan: House faces east north east, say east, onto the Green. It has a double depth plan 2-rooms wide and 2-rooms deep. An axial stack between the 2 front rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces, parlour to the left (south) and kitchen to the north. Smaller service rooms to rear. There is no main front entrance. 2 front doorways give direct entry into each of the front rooms. Both are now behind a large front porch which was also formerly used as a shop. The present layout is essentially that of the early/mid C18 but part of the building is mid C17. It is difficult to determine the extent of the C17 building since the roof has been replaced and much of the framing is plastered over. Nevertheless it seems that the right (kitchen end) front and back room is C17, possibly returning across the front. The present building work (January 1989) uncovered the C17 front doorway and it is blocked by the present stack. It would seem that ever since the C18 modernisation there has been 2 front doorways as now. House is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and a cellar under the parlour. Exterior: Nearly symmetrical 2-window front of mostly C19 and C20 casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass although some of the window frames are earlier, e.g. ground floor left window has C18 flat-faced mullioned oak frame. Large central porch (weatherboarded with hipped roof) has doorway in right side containing a C20 plank door with coverstrips. To left of the porch the brick ground floor wall returns from the end across the front only a short distance. The window is contained in a weatherboarded timber-framed section. Although the ground floor section to right of the porch is all brick, a straight joint shows that this end was originally similar. Main roof is gable-ended and contains 2 hip-roofed dormer windows. Parallel roofs with M-profile and attics at right end have 12-pane sashes. Interior: Well-preserved C17 and C18 work. C17 front doorway (blocked by C18 stack) is oak with ogee-moulded surround and some first floor framing temporarily exposed by building works show that it is close-studded with internal curving tension braces. The parlour is lined with C18 large-field panelling in 2 heights and includes a contemporary corner cupbaord. Fireplace is blocked by a later fireplace and the axial beam is chamfered. Former kitchen has a large fireplace. Its sides have been relined but its oak lintel is original. Plain chamfered crossbeam here and similar axial beam to rear. First floor chamber over parlour has fielded panel wainscotting; it is a little rearranged about the C20 chimneypiece. The front and back rooms over the kitchen side have maybe C17 chamfered crossbeams with step stops. More evidence of the C17 house from the rear end wall posts of the right rooms which face inwards suggesting a crossroof end onto the street. The present roof, an M-section roof parallel to the street and probably C18, was badly damaged by a fire in late 1988 and at the time of this survey most of its structure had been plastered over. The winder stair behind the stack is probably C18. The Old Butchers is an attractive and well-preserved house in its own right but is given added importance by its position amongst a group of other equally well-preserved buildings which make up Old Groombridge. Listing NGR: TQ5301537652