TQ 54 41 SPELDHURST SPELDHURST HILL (north side), SPELDHURST 12/583 Lower Church Farmhouse GV II Former farmhouse, row of 2 houses. Late C16/early C17, enlarged in the late C18/early C19, small late C19 extension, some circa 1980 modernisation. Timber-framed. Ground floor level is underbuilt with Flemish bond red brick. Framing above is hung with peg-tile. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts. Peg- tile roof. Plan: House faces south west. It is 2 rooms wide and 2 rooms deep with central front staircase. Left frot room has a projecting gable-end stack. Axial stack between rear rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces. Present entrance through late C19 entrance porch on left end, possibly replacing an earlier one on the front. However the front rooms were added in the late C18/early C19 in front of a late C16/early C17 2-room lobby entrance plan farmhouse, probably with integral rear outshots. Right front and back rooms are now divided off from rest as a separate house. 2 storeys with attics in roofspace of the older part and probably late C16/early C17 lean-to outshots to rear. Cellars below. Exterior: Regular but not symmetrical 3-window front. The right 2-window section is of late C18/early C19 16-pane sashes, the ground floor ones with low segmental brick arches over. Left first floor window is a contemporary -timber casement containing an iron-framed casement and rectangular panes of leaded glass. 2 left ground floor windows are C20 csements with glazing bars. Present main entrance through late C19 porch on left end contains a 4-panel door with a small sash window alongside. 2 parallel roofs. Front roof is gable-ended. Rear roof is steeply pitched and taller than the front one. It is gable-ended to left and half-hipped to right and rear pitch continues down over the outshots. Interior: Only the left section was available for inspection at the time of this survey. Late C16/early C17 work is confined to the rear. Rear left room and chamber above have chamfered and scroll-stopped axial beams. Firepalces rebuilt in the C20. Cellar below has walls of coursed sandstone (brick-walled cellar under front). Attic floor is carried on a crossbeam below tie beam level. Roof of rear block of 3 uneven bays; tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins and queen struts. Listing NGR: TQ5542541663