Listed Building: POPLAR FARMHOUSE (281079)

OAKLEY LOWER OAKLEY TM 17 NE 2/138 Poplar Farmhouse 29.7.55 II* Farmhouse. Circa 1400 main range with late C16 cross-wing to left, forming T- shape plan. Timber framed and plastered with a thatched roof. 2 storeys. A 3-cell open hall house of a rare single-ended Wealden form, with the solar end jettied at first floor level to the front. The wallplate to the recessed portion has embattled decoration below which is a hollow chamfer. C19 casement windows. C19 6-panelled raised and fielded door into the hall. 2 ridge stacks with rendered shafts. Original house in 4 bays: it seems likely that the service end had no upper floor, and was built as a single open room with a long hipped roof. Lower bay of open hall has remains of cross-entry doorway; in the service partition is a beam with embattled ornament. Evidence for diamond-mullioned hall windows. The open truss has a cambered tie beam from which the arched braces have been removed. The roof is of raised-aisle form, with jowled queen-posts arch-braced to arcade plates and collar; the braces to the arcade plates are solid. The collar carries a central king- post, which in turn has 2-way bracing to a ridge piece of deep-narrow section. The combination of queen-posts and king post is very rare; there are other examples at The Vicarage, Hoxne (Item 7/81) and Willow Farmhouse, Chippenhall Green, Fressingfield. About one fifth of the original hall rafters remain, together with the plastered lower gable end wall. All original components are heavily sooted. Main stack built in upper end of hall in later C16. Also of this date is the inserted floor, with closely-spaced plain joists, and a partition screening the cross-passage. The cross-wing seems to have been intended as a barn or granary: it now forms living accommodation and the frame has been considerably altered. Listing NGR: TM1613277949