TQ 53 NW SPELDHURST SPELDHURST ROAD, LANGTON GREEN 7/589 Searles and Stonewall 29.6.87 II Former farmhouse, now divided into 2 houses. Late medieval, probably late C15, with early C17 improvements. Partly rebuilt and expensively enlarged circa 1900, some circa 1980 modernisation. The old part is timber-framed on coursed sandstone footings. Ground floor level is underbuilt with Flemish bond red brick with some burnt headers. Framing at first floor level is hung with peg-tile and the gable is exposed framing. Circa 1900 extensions in similar style. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts. Peg-tile roof. Plan and Development: Large house faces west north west, say west. The main front block has a 2-room plan; hall to left and former parlour (now used as a kitchen) at the right (south) end. Axial stack between these rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces and lobby entrance in front. The former service end completely rebuilt circa 1900 as a crosswing projecting forward and back with more rooms built behind the old hall at the same time. The extensions increased the size of the house 3 times. Front of the crosswing was a drawing room with other principal rooms to rear. Only the hall and parlour section remains from the older house. Originally the hall was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. It was floored over and the stack was inserted in the early C17 and at the same time the parlour end was rebuilt. Now the house has been subdivided. The old part belongs to Searles along with the circa 1900 section to rear of the hall and a circa 1980 lean-to on the southern side of the front projection of the northern crosswing. The rest belongs to Stonewall. House is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace. Exterior: The front of Searles, the old part, has an irregular 2-window front of circa 1900 casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. However the first floor window at the right end serving the chamber over the former parlour has a restored C17 oriel window, 5 lights with ovolo-moulded mullions and flanked by blocked ribbon windows. Jettied gable has C17 moulded bressummer supported on acanthus consoles and each end are carved pendants below plain bargeboards to the gable. Front doorway is left of centre. Apparantly the front lobby entrance doorway had been blocked up circa 1900 but was reopened circa 1987 with new door and gabled porch. A circa 1900 doorway in right end wall under a gabled hood on shaped struts. Main roof is hipped both ends and includes 2 hip-roofed dormers. The circa 1900 extensions built in an attractive Arts and Crafts vernacular style, the impression created of an irregular series of gables, some of them jettied, and some with small half hips. The circa 1900 main doorway was into the north side of the crosswing through a wide gabled porch. All the windows are ovolo-mullioned containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. Interior: Pre-1900 work is confined to the front block of Searles. Large 2- bay hall has its medieval roof. Common rafter trusses and central open tie- beam truss with chamfered arch braces. If it had a crown post arrangement it has been removed. Early C17 crossbeam flooring the hall clasps the medieval arch braces. It is chamfered with step stops and sockets along its soffit suggest it was once used as the headbeam of a partition. The northern bay of the hall is now open to attic level. Hall fireplace is lined with C20 brick but its chamfered Tudor arch oak lintel is original, that is to say early C17. (Similar fireplace behind serving the parlour and smaller version in the chamber over the parlour.) Alongside the fireplace an oak 2-centred arch doorway leads to a newel stair rising alongside the stack. This doorway looks too early for the early C17, maybe it has been reset. Parlour ceiling of 3 axial bays on ovolo-moulded beams with chamfered and scroll-stopped joists. The rear bay was formerly partitioned off, presumably as a buttery. The chamber above is now open to the roof although the main beams which formerly carried the attic floor remain, they are chamfered with scroll stops. Roof has been somewhat mended but appears to have been 3 bays of tie-beam trusses with clasped purlins and raking struts. The circa 1900 extensions includes reused timbers. Good straight flight stair rising between square panelled framed walls and the posts rise over the first floor landing balustrade and have jowled heads. Source. The owners of Stonewall have a published article describing the circa 1900 conversion. It includes plans and photographs before and after the work. However the article is anonymous and the published source could not be located at the time of this survey. Listing NGR: TQ5442839523