Listed Building: THE POPLARS (277178)

BRETTENHAM OLD SCHOOL ROAD 1. TL 95SE 33/496 THE POPLARS II 2. Former farmhouse. Late C15 and C17. Timber-framed and rendered; roof, with corru- gated iron sheeting over old thatch, is hipped on the left, half-hipped on the right. 1½ storeys. An internal chimney-stack with a plain rebuilt red brick shaft. 2 gabled dormers to front with old 2-light leaded-paned casement windows. One 3-light and one 2-light C20 metal casement window to the ground floor, and a single-light window to each side of the entrance door. 3-cell plan, now with lobby entrance; frame in 5 bays. The centre of the house contains 1½ bays of a former open hall with crown- post roof. The tie-beam and crown-post of the open truss have been cut away, but the collar-purlin remains, with mortices for braces and extensive smoke-blackening below thick layers of whitewash. Later plastering covers the rafters and collars. The chimney-stack, which appears to be in 2 sections, has been inserted into the hall against the line of the former open truss. Beside it, diamond-mullioned housings for a hall window in the rear wallplate. The inserted ceiling in the one remaining full bay of the hall has a main beam, with wide chamfer and curved stepped stops, resting on a short post against the stack, similarly finished. At the left end, the former service bay, still divided into 2, has a C20 replacement ceiling. To the right of the stack, a marked break in the wallplates and a 2-bay section with exposed ground- floor ceiling: joists on edge. All visible studding is substantial and widely-spaced, some of it with small modern studs inserted between the original ones; no middle rail; tension braces in the end walls. The building, which stands on a moated site, is currently empty and derelict. Listing NGR: TL9742054139