TQ 64 SW PEMBURY ROMFORD ROAD 5/420 Mays Farmhouse GV II Former farmhouse. Probably C16 origins, refurbished in the late C17, extended and enlarged in the late C19. Original section is timber-framed but most is underbuilt with red brick. Framing above is tile-hung. Newer section built in same style. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts. Peg-tile roof. Plan: Double depth house facing north east. It is 2 rooms wide. Front rooms with end stacks and central entrance hall containing the main stair. Rear block contains former kitchen and service room. Larger rear room, former kitchen/present dining room, has axial stack backing onto unheated service room (now used as the kitchen). The front block is a late C19 addition in front of a late C17 2-room plan house, apparently built inside the shell of a probably C16 house. It was difficult at the time of this survey, to determine the layout of the earlier house, even to determine whether or not it was originally floored. However there was some evidence to suggest that the existing late C17 stack replaced a framed smoke bay. Exterior: Late C19 symmetrical 2-window front of 4-pane sashes, low brick segmental arches over the ground floor windows. Central front doorway contains a part-glazed 4-panel door behind a gabled porch on plain posts. Roof is hipped both ends. The rear block, the older section, has C19 and C20 casement windows ands its taller roof is hipped both ends. Interior: The rear block is the historic core and here a great deal of early carpentry remains. All the main beams and some of the joists are plain chamfered, those over the former service room/present kitchen are of relatively large scantling. Former kitchen fireplace relined with C20 brick but its chamfered oak lintel is probably original, that is to say late C17. Evidence for the C16 house is difficult to distinguish below roof level. The wall plate and tie beams are lower than attic level suggesting that the attic floor was inserted in the late C17 into the earlier roof. Roof itself is carried on common rafter couples with evidence for lap-jointed collars. The rafters are clean, except for those in the bay containing the present stack. Here they are blackened. This with evidence below of timbers incorporated into the brick stack provide evidence of the framed smoke bay. Listing NGR: TQ6380640962