Listed Building: SPARROW HALL (493412)

HARKSTEAD 1343/0/10004 Sparrow Hall 18-OCT-04 II House C17 with C19 extension and C20 lean-to; Timber-framed under cement render, black and red pantile roof. PLAN/EXTERIOR Originally three-unit lobby-entry with central brick chimney stack to south end of original house. C19 fourth unit added in brick to south. C19 chimneys added at north and south ends. Timber frame not visible externally, but is at north end upstairs where the top of a jowled wall post is visible. The north gable appears to be complete as does the south (which is now an internal wall). Small sections of the side walls are also visible. The windows are all C20 metal windows. Some of the smaller ones may occupy original openings. C19 or C20 porch with pantiled roof to east. The ROOF is A-frame with one row of butt purlins. INTERIOR Downstairs rooms to either side of central chimney have north-south central beams with moulded stops. Original fireplaces on either side of the chimney have been infilled modern grates, but possibly original panelled cupboard doors remain on northern side. Some of the other internal doors may be original. Two C19 staircases lead upstairs. Good C19 fire grates in the bedrooms and some original floor boards under later ones. HISTORY Probably divided into two dwellings in C19 when the southern extension was built, the gable chimneys inserted and the two staircases put in. Early C20 bathrooms and kitchens inserted, new windows cut in, some possibly in original positions and a wooden single-storey flat-roof extension put on, but there has been no alteration since c.1950. The house had been abandoned for some time. The windows are broken and some tiles off. This is a typical three-unit lobby-entry house of the late C17 type. Most of the timber-frame probably survives and it has been little altered.