Barrington

2 BARRINGTON

(O.S. 6 ins. ^aTL 35 S.E., ^bTL 45 S.W., ^cTL 34 N.E., ^dTL 44 N.W.)

Barrington is a village and parish 4¾ m. S.W. of Cambridge. The parish, which at 2282 acres is rather above average size, is four-sided, the N. side, which is formed by an ancient ridgeway, being the shortest and the S. side along the river Rhee being the longest. From the ridge where the trackway runs at a height of over 200 ft. the land falls, steeply at first and then more gently, to the river which is here less than 50 ft. above sea level and flows along the N. edge of its flood plain with a steep bank on the village side. The soil varies from boulder clay on the ridge through chalk and gault to river alluvium and gravels.

The settlement is a spring-line one and a number of springs actually rise on the green. Its importance is also strategic as it commands a river crossing alternative to that at Cambridge. The river formed the boundary between Mercia and East Anglia; token engagements between villages to the N. and S. of it seem to have been a feature of their annual feasts in the middle ages and to have persisted as late as the last quarter of the 19th century (Conybeare, History of Cambs., 139).

The village of Barrington is for the most part grouped around a large vesica-shaped green (Plate 41), more than ½ m. long and some 200 yds. across at its widest point. The green lies parallel to the river; between them the closes have been arranged two deep with a dividing back lane, some house sites nearest the river have probably been abandoned. The green has evidently been reduced, the N. side looks as though it has been realigned in places and in size: there is a large enclosure in the middle which may have been effected in 1657 (see Monuments (12) and (13)). The line of the stream which forms the E. and part of the S. perimeter, viewed in conjunction with the associated property boundaries in the area, suggests the possibility that the church itself is an intrusion.

As in the neighbouring parish of Haslingfield, clunch was quarried in Barrington from an early date. It was extensively used at Trinity College (see R.C.H.M. Cambridge, Index, s.v. 'Building Materials'). The college, who are patrons of the living, have always had a close connection with the village, which derives from the gift of the moiety of one of the manors to Michael House by Hervey de Stanton in 1326–7; the other part came to the college later in the 14th century. The second manor, which belonged until the dissolution to the convent of Chatteris, was then added by the Crown. Important documents relating to the place are preserved in the college muniments; they include an undated field book (perhaps of c. 1796; Trinity College Senior Bursars muniments, Box 35) preserving field names a number of which derive from old quarries. Some abandoned workings are still to be seen, but specifically ancient quarries have not been identified. Clunch is extensively employed in the church fabric and also in a number of the secular buildings listed (Monuments (4), (5), (22) and (25)).

The village had three open fields which were enclosed in 1796, but the change affected the appearance of the village relatively little. Houses built after 1715 and not listed include some of the first half of the 19th century, of studwork or clay bat with slated roofs. Wilsmere Down Farm (Monument (24)) is a good example of an outlying farmstead of c. 1800.

Coprolite was dug extensively in the 19th century and this produced evidence of Early Iron Age settlement and the sites of two Pagan Saxon cemeteries (Fox, Arch. Camb. Reg. 109, 250–5); it may also have obliterated some field evidence for the evolution of the village.

Ecclesiastical

^c(1) Parish Church of All Saints (Plate 42) stands at the E. end of the green. The churchyard is partly bounded by a wall, which is ancient along much of the S. side; to the W. it is contained by the buildings and boundary wall of Rectory Farm—see Monument (5) below. The fabric is of clunch ashlar and field stones with roofs of slate and lead. It consists of a Chancel, at one time with N. annexe; Nave with Aisles, outer Chapels and Porches; and West Tower.

The W. angles of the nave may be those of an aisleless church refaced to bond with the side walls of the tower but originally of the 12th century. The earliest work otherwise is 13th-century and includes the W. half of the N. wall of the chancel, both nave arcades, much of the walling of the S. aisle, and the ground stage of the tower. The comprehensive rebuilding, of which they formed a part, seems to have been interrupted towards the end of the century but was resumed in the 14th century when the chancel was rebuilt, the N. aisle widened, the S. chapel added and the tower raised to its penultimate stage. Later in the 14th century the top stage of the tower, the clearstorey and the S. porch were built. The N. chapel and the N. porch which share one roof appear to be the result of a single building operation in the 15th or early 16th century. The church was restored in 1874 and in 1891; the site of the S. chapel, destroyed possibly in 1710, is occupied by a modern vestry. The church is much decayed externally and the walls have been covered over in part with Roman cement or other stucco; many of the dressings also have been renewed in Roman cement.

Architectural Description—The Chancel (39 ft. by 19¼ ft.) is covered on the outside, including the dressings, with Roman cement. The mid to late 14th-century E. window is of five cinque-foiled lights: the three middle lights and their tracery are contained under a sub-arch formed by the tracery bars rising from the outer mullions; above it is a further complex of vertical tracery. The window has a moulded label on the inside with carved head stops. The W. half of the N. wall contains a 13th-century lancet with wide internal splays. In the E. half of the wall is a blocked 14th-century doorway which opened into a lost N. annexe. It is of two orders, chamfered in the jambs and moulded in the head. In the S. wall are three windows. The first two are of early 14th-century origin and are each of two trefoiled lights with flowing tracery and have original inside labels with head stops. The third window is a two-light transomed 'low-side' in 14th-century style, but is entirely modern save for the rear arch and splays. The S. doorway is of 14th-century origin and has an original high depressed rear arch with a stop-moulded label. The chancel arch is of two lightly hollow-chamfered orders on responds of semiquatrefoil plan with small fillets between the foils; the caps and bases are moulded but the mouldings are not uniform and the cap on the S. side is enriched with nail-head. The responds are of the late 13th century; above them the wall sets back and the arch may be part of the 14th-century rebuild.

The Nave (56 ft. by 19½ ft.) has similar N. and S. arcades of the second half of the 13th century, with component piers and arches which are substantially uniform in design; but there are minor variations both within each arcade and from one arcade to the other. The base mouldings in general are eroded. The N. arcade consists of five arches, each of two orders worked with a double hollow chamfer, supported on quatrefoil piers with small fillets between the keeled foils and with moulded caps, enriched with nail-head, and hold-water bases. The arches have labels on both sides which mitre over the piers. The responds do not quite tally with the piers: caps and bases are of somewhat different section and the caps lack the nail-head enrichment. The piers and responds of the S. arcade both have the nail-head enrichment to the caps, but some at least of the bases do not seem to be waterholding; the labels on both sides of the arches have carved stops. At the E. end of the S. arcade the late mediaeval rood stairs with their upper and lower four-centred doorways have been preserved more or less intact. The nave clearstorey is of the late 14th century and has windows over the arch heads each of two cinque-foiled lights with a quatrefoil in a four-centred head. These windows have square outer heads externally with panelled spandrels and moulded rear arches internally.

The North Aisle (10¼ ft. wide) has a 15th-century E. window of three cinque-foiled lights with vertical tracery in a four-centred head, much decayed externally. Immediately N. of it is a mutilated 14th-century window, recently unblocked, originally with two lights and traceried head; adjoining its N. splay is the springing of an arch. The E. part of the N. wall is occupied by two late mediaeval four-centred arches leading into the N. chapel, each of two moulded orders, the outer continuous and the inner carried on semi-octagonal shafts, attached to the pier and responds, with moulded caps and bases. In the W. part are two late mediaeval windows, each of three cinque-foiled lights with four-centred heads and outside labels. The W. window resembles the E. window. The two-centred N. doorway, of 14th-century date, is of two continuous wave-moulded orders, and has splays and high four-centred rear arch also with a continuous wave mould.

The North Chapel (9½ ft. wide) has a restored E. window similar to the E. window of the N. aisle, and two windows in the N. wall similar to those in the W. part of the aisle wall. It has an 18th-century black and white stone pavement. The N. Porch has an entrance arch of two continuous orders and a decayed 14th-century W. window, reset inside out perhaps from an earlier porch, of three cinque-foiled lights with tracery in a depressed head.

The South Aisle (7¼ ft. wide) is of 13th-century origin with added 14th-century buttresses; it has a modern E. window. The E. part of the S. wall is flanked by the vestry, access to which is afforded by a modern splayed opening with a reset 13th-century depressed rear-arch in the head enriched with dog-tooth. Further W. is a modern window which also opens into the vestry, below which is the sill of an earlier, perhaps 13th-century, predecessor. In the W. part of the S. wall are two 15th-century windows each of three cinque-foiled lights with vertical tracery in a four-centred head. The S. doorway (Plate 81), of 13th-century origin, is set in a frame which projects from the main wall face. It is of three moulded orders, the outer two of which are carried on nook-shafts, but has been entirely restored in Roman cement save for the shafts. The rear-arch resembles that incorporated in the opening from the aisle into the vestry. In the W. wall is a 14th-century window of two trefoiled lights with net tracery in a square head. The S. Porch is of the mid 14th century save for its E. wall which incorporates the W. wall of the former S. chapel and has in it an original doorway of two continuous chamfered orders with a mutilated window above. The entrance arch is of two moulded orders. The W. window resembles the corresponding window of the N. porch but is in situ.

The West Tower (12 ft. square) is of four storeys, the two lowest of which are combined in a single architectural stage, and is to a uniform design. The lowest stage is 13th-century and the remainder successive builds of the 14th century. It appears to have been intruded into the W. end of an aisleless nave, the refaced quoins of which now flank it to the N. and S. Save on its E. face the tower is supported by three-stage angle buttresses and has lancets in the second storey. On the E. face, visible both outside and inside, is the weathercourse of an earlier nave roof. The bell chamber has four restored windows each of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a four-centred head and a label; it is crowned by a stepped parapet, likewise restored, with four centrally placed gargoyles below it and bases for eight pinnacles. The tower arch is of three chamfered orders. It stands on semi-octagonal responds with moulded caps and bases, and incorporates the springing of a projected or dismantled arch. The 15th-century W. window is of three cinque-foiled lights with vertical tracery.

The nave Roof (Plate 43), of five bays, is of the late 14th century. It has tie beams with king posts braced to the ridge and arch braces from the wall posts, the spandrels being filled with pierced tracery. There are pairs of secondary rafters in each bay with a wooden boss at the apex. The wall posts are placed over stone corbels (Plate 48) carved with angels or human subjects in half or full figure, save for two wooden replacements. Both aisles have late 14th- or 15th-century lean-to roofs above stone corbels with some replacements and repairs. The combined roofs of the N. porch and N. chapel and that of the S. porch are also old.

Fittings—Bell frame: old, restored. Bier (Plate 21): with turned legs and shaped brackets to top rails beneath which are centrally placed pendants; 17th-century. Bracket: reset below the piscina in chancel, of clunch; five-sided, moulded, embattled and enriched with paterae and foliation; late mediaeval. Brass indent: in N. aisle; much defaced, of limestone marble; presumably that described by Cole (B.M. Add. MS. 5803, 28–30), as being 'with inlets for 3 Persons'; probably late mediaeval. Chest: covered with interlacing iron straps, with five latches and three staples across the top for a bar; 16th-century. Cupboard: below the W. window of the tower, with wooden doors in two leaves, perhaps reset from S. aisle; 17th- or 18th-century. Door (Plate 81): the S. door is in two leaves, each divided into three vertical panels with overall geometrical tracery in the head; 14th-century or later. Font: limestone bowl, rectangular, with shafted angles, 13th-century; clunch base, rectangular, with sides panelled and cusped, 14th-century. Glass: a few fragments in the topmost tracery lights of the E. window in the N. aisle; 15th-century. Hatchment: canvas in wooden frame with achievement of arms of Bendyshe; first half of 19th century.

Monuments and Floor slabs. Monuments: In chancel—on N. wall (1) of Anna Lyng, carved and painted clunch; an arched recess, flanked by Ionic columns, containing a shield of arms and inscription, and over all an achievement of arms of Lyng with date 1586; (2) of Elizabeth Wallis, 1775, oval tablet of black marble in moulded clunch frame. In N. chapel on N. wall (3) of Robert Bendyshe, 1687, and Margret his wife, 1673; marble tablet framed with cherubs' heads, swags, gadrooning and urns; (4) of Catherine (Matcham), first wife of John Bendyshe, 1831; marble tablet in gothic frame of stone and marble, with shield of arms; (5) of Thomas Bendyshe, 1684, and Constance (Castle), his wife, painted clunch and freestone; tablet flanked by Corinthian half columns with gadrooned apron and an entablature surmounted by a bust flanked by two urns; (6) of Richard Bendyshe, 1825, and Jane, his wife, 1824; (7) of Martha Bendyshe, 1785, oval tablet of white marble against a background enriched with an urn, draperies and lozenge of arms; on W. wall (8) of John Bendyshe, 1855, and Catherine, his wife, 1831, signed 'T. Gaffin, Regent St. London'; (9) of Constantia Gyles, 1663/4, daughter of Thomas Bendyshe, stone tablet in a shaped frame carved with a skull and flanked by painted shields of arms; (10) of Richard Bendyshe, 1777, white marble tablet against a grey pyramidal background carved with military trophies. In churchyard—(11) of Jo. Shearman, 1717; headstone with carved putti and emblems of mortality (Plate 15). Floor slabs (including headstones reset as floor slabs): In chancel—(1) of Charles Stacy, 17105 (sic); (2) of Thomas Stacie, 1680; (3) of Owen Cambridge, 1780; (4) of William Jude, 1749; (5) of John Newling, 173(3?); (6) of Sarah, daughter of John Newling, 1729. In nave—(7) of William Peck, 1714. In N. aisle— (8) two fragments of an incised clunch slab with traces of black filling, mediaeval; (9) incised tapered coffin lid with traces of black filling, mediaeval; (10) of Jane Underwood, 1822; (11) of Edward Prime, 1800; (12) of Thomas Prime, 1797. In N. chapel—(13) of Margaret Bendyshe, 1704; (14) of Constance Gyles, 1663. In S. aisle—(15) of Joseph Prime, 1823, and Ann, his wife, 1821; (16) of Edward Prime, 1830, and May, his wife, 1816.

Paintings: Over third pier of S. arcade—lower part of 'Three Dead'; late mediaeval. Beneath are traces of scroll-work, perhaps 13th-century. Piscinae: in chancel (1) having jambs moulded with a double wave, trefoiled ogee head, and label with head stops and finial, quatrefoil drain, 14th-century; reset in S. wall of vestry (2) (Plate 7) with square outer and trefoiled crocketed nodding ogee inner head, blank shields set in pierced spandrels, quatrefoil drain, 14th-century. Plate: includes an inscribed cup and a cover paten (Plate 23), both by Thomas Buttell and dated '1569'; and a paten, London 1683. Pulpit: seven-sided, rising from a central coved stem with carved book rest. The back, which is broader than the other sides, is carried up to a sounding board; panelled and enriched with gadrooning and geometrical and architectural motifs; early 17th-century, stem possibly from an earlier pulpit. Recess: in N. wall of N. aisle, perhaps reset, shallow, with quatre-foiled and double-cusped depressed ogee head, and label stopped by side-shafts rising from two miniature half-figure corbels; 14th-century. Scratchings: There are a large number of these on the nave piers and other clunch dressings throughout the church, varying in date from late mediaeval to modern. Among the more conspicuous are: on the first pier of the N. arcade (1) 'mors tua mors Christi fraus mundi gloria coeli et d ...' (printed in Notes on Ceremonial from the Sarum Missal (1882), 5); on the third pier (2) horned animals presumably intended for stags, fleurs-de-lis and a shield of arms of Barrington; on the fourth pier (3) 'ihs', 'Dominus (?Wilhelmus) Quarles (several further words not certainly decipherable)'; on the first pier of the S. arcade (4) a rhyme (Plate 16) read by G. G. Coulton ('Mediaeval Graffiti, especially in the Eastern Counties', C.A.S. Procs., XIX (1915), 57) as: 'Lo fol how the day goth/Cast foly now to the cok/Ryht sone tydyth the wroth/It ys almast XII of the clok'; on E. splay of the last window of the N. aisle (5) several staves of plain song; on the S. splay of the W. window of the tower (6) windmill sails. Seating: in nave, consisting of four sets each of five pews, with moulded sills and top rails, and backs, fronts and ends composed of panels set between buttresses and enriched with tracery; late mediaeval, with some piecing and repairs. Stoup: in S. porch, defaced. Parts of the stem and canopy survive, the latter with soffit carved with a sun in splendour; temp. Edward IV. Miscellaneous: two small fragments of a mediaeval gable cross; lead panel with cast inscription 'R B 1786'.

^c(2) Graveyard, near the site of a former meeting house which was in existence at the end of the 18th century. Among surviving monuments and headstones are a few of the first half of the 19th century.

Secular

^a(3) School and School House, of plastered studwork with thatched roofs, was built as a 'National School' in 1839. The school house, two ground floor rooms with attics over, end on to the road, is flanked by symmetrically disposed single-storey schoolrooms placed at right angles to it. All the ends are gabled. The detailing is in the Tudor manner.

^a(4) Church Farm (Plate 61), consists of a house and pigeon house. The House, two storeys, partly framed and partly of clunch ashlar with tiled roofs, is of late mediaeval origin. It consists of a straight range, the W. end of which was added early in the 19th century. At the same time the E. end was reconstructed and perhaps extended, and the N. wall rebuilt. This 19th-century work is all of clunch.

The framed walls of the original building survive to a great extent on the S. side. Part of the ground storey is recessed; above it is a jetty flush with the main wall face.

Inside, the ground floor of the older part of the building is divided into three bays by stop-chamfered ceiling beams, and formed originally a single large room, suggesting a specialpurpose building. It is now cut up by modern partitions. Upstairs, some tie beams and other timbers of inferior quality are exposed.

The Pigeon house, 18th-century, framed and boarded, stands to the N.E. among other outbuildings. The nests have been removed and a floor inserted.

^c(5) Rectory Farm (Plate 46) consists of a house and buildings. The House, immediately E. of the churchyard, partly of red brick and partly framed, is of two storeys with some attics. The roofs are tiled. It is in origin a mediaeval hall house (Class B) on a N. and S. axis. It was remodelled in the 16th century when a chimney and floor were inserted in the hall and the N. cross wing was reconstructed. The present S. wing presumably replaces an earlier one; it is of red brick save for its N. wall and was built in 1772 as a Class-T house when the remainder of the building was relegated to service use.

The S. side of the S. wing is now the main elevation. It is symmetrically designed in five bays with a central front door and hung-sash windows with flush frames. The W. gable end has a brick panel below the chimney stack inscribed 'TW 1772'.

Inside the S. wing the W. rooms on both floors retain some 18th-century panelling and there is a simple 18th-century staircase from ground floor to attic with turned balusters and close string. The main range of two bays was originally open to the roof but now has an inserted floor carried on 16th-century heavy chamfered beams. On the upper floor the main posts of the central truss are exposed and have two mortices each for double bracing to a roof truss now missing. The roof has been rebuilt. The N. wing is three bays long and two storeys high. A massive clunch chimney of the 16th century inserted in the N. end of the main range serves fireplaces of that date on both floors; that on the upper floor is badly mutilated, but that on the ground floor is almost complete and is of clunch with continuous moulded jambs and depressed four-centred head. Other visible details at this end of the house include a stop-moulded beam on the ground floor and a blocked window in the upper part of the N. wall apparently divided into four lights by moulded wooden mullions. In the roof, otherwise rebuilt, a principal truss, apparently original, survives between the second and third bays; it has a heavily braced cambered collar beam and retains traces of red pigmentation.

The Buildings, to the N. and E. of the house, include a postmediaeval aisled barn of eight bays, framed, boarded and thatched; and a small brew-house of clunch ashlar, probably of the first half of the 19th century.

^{a and c}(6) Barrington Hall, of two storeys, attics and cellar, is brick-built with roofs of tile. It consists of a long range with rooms disposed on both floors either side of an axial corridor. The S.E. half was a 17th-century house (Class U), but no original features survive, and the details are entirely modern. E. of the house are some 18th-century brick stables.

^c(7) Houses, a symmetrical pair with central chimney; perhaps originally an 18th-century barn, converted in the late 18th or early 19th century; framed and plastered, with thatched roof half-hipped at the ends.

^c(8) House (Class I), two-storeyed, of clay bat, plastered, with thatched gabled roof and sliding-sash windows; first half of the 19th century.

^{c and d}(9) Vicarage (Class U), two-storeyed, of brick with hipped slated roofs; mid 19th-century.

^c(10) House, former pigeon house, of 17th- or 18th-century origin, is framed and plastered with hipped tiled roof rising to twin gablets.

^c(11) House (Class I), two-storeyed, with front and gabled ends of rendered red brick, framed rear wall and tiled roof; 17th-century. The front is symmetrically designed with central door and platband, returned at the ends, lifting over later hung-sash windows. The chimney has a shafted diagonal stack. A later outshut at the back may replace an original feature.

^c(12) House, with three ground-floor rooms and an internal chimney; of one storey and attics, framed and plastered, with a thatched roof gabled at the ends. The chimney end has a lower ridge and may have been open to the roof. An exposed ceiling beam bears the date '1651' which is probably when the house was built.

^c(13) House, similar to the foregoing, but recently extended and heightened at the W. end. An exposed chamfered ceiling beam is inscribed '18 Day of Februar 1657', '1657', and 'WM 1712'; the earlier date is probably that of erection.

^c(14) Houses, a pair, said to have been erected under bequest; single-storeyed with attic, framed and plastered, with central chimney and thatched roof with end gables; first half of the 19th century.

^c(15) Bulbeck Mill House (Class T), of red brick with tiled roof, two storeys high with attic, is of the second half of the 18th century. The five-bay front facing E. to the yard has hung-sash windows with flush frames and a front door with semicircular fanlight under a flat hood supported by shaped brackets. W. of the house and parallel to it is a somewhat older framed range of one storey and attic which has been modernised and linked to the main range by roofing-in the intervening passage. The S. room on the ground floor is panelled in two heights and there is an original staircase with turned balusters and close string.

^c(16) House (Class I), of two storeys with attics lit from the gable ends; framed and plastered, with a tiled roof. The structure, which is rather more generous in scale than usual, is 18th-century with some 19th-century additions.

^c(17) House (Plate 46), originally an aisled hall (Class A) but remodelled at least twice (in, probably, the 15th century, and in the 17th century) and now approximating in lay-out and appearance to Class H; recently two dwellings; of two storeys, with tiled roofs. The frame is plastered outside except for an outbuilding on the N.W. the timbers of which (many of them reused) are exposed, the pan being filled with red-brick nogging.

The main range and E. cross wing of the present structure incorporate much of the carcase of a 14th-century hall and of its service end. This hall was ostensibly of two bays, though it may have been curtailed to the W. It was certainly aisled on the N. side but evidence for a S. aisle is not conclusive. The original planning at either end of the hall cannot now be recovered, but the W. cross wing, to judge by its roof, is substantially mediaeval, though probably later in date than the aisled hall; the outbuilding was added to its N. end in the 16th century. Modifications in the 17th century included the building or rebuilding of the E. cross wing and both cross wings were supplied with internal chimneys; at the same time a floor, carried on stop-chamfered ceiling beams, and a chimney were inserted into the hall, the N. aisle of which was thrown into the ground floor room of the main range. Subsequent change was mostly confined to renewals, some of which have been fairly extensive; the original N. aisle is represented by an outshut of uncertain date with a comparatively modern roof.

The principal elevation is S. to the green. It has the flanking gables characteristic of the Class-H house with three chimney stacks, that to the main range rebuilt in white brick, those of the cross wings in red brick of c. 1700 each of three flues conjoined at the top. The W. cross wing has on its W. side a tall red-brick plinth of the 17th century divided into bays by three miniature buttresses. Above it on the first floor is a three-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions; a similar, ground-floor, window survives on the W. face of the E. wing.

From the interior much of the original framing of the hall can be seen or felt, though for the most part with difficulty. The post-mediaeval remodelling resulted in the mutilation of both posts supporting the middle truss; the N. post has been cut away below the level of the inserted floor and the S. post which forms part of the present S. wall has been pared back to admit a window. The upper part of the truss is relatively well preserved with cambered tie beam and stop-chamfered crown post having four-way bracing. There are mortices for long curved braces from the main posts to the tie and the bracing from the N. post to its arcade plate survives or can be inferred. The roof is of collar-purlin construction and is smoke-blackened; one of the N. rafters projects slightly beyond the arcade plate and terminates in a scarf joint for the corresponding aisle rafter. The closed truss at the E. end of the hall seems to be almost complete from the middle rail upward: it includes a tie beam and collar with crown post braced to the collar purlin, and has in addition long braces parallel to the rafters; a stud immediately below the crown post is down braced to two others symmetrically placed either side of it; the middle rail is pegged for a lower partition.

The roof of the W. cross wing is divided into three bays by tie beams with collars to each pair of rafters; the timbers are numbered with carefully incised Roman numerals. It is of mediaeval character, perhaps of the 15th or 16th century.

Later internal details and fittings, mostly of the 17th and 18th centuries, include, in the E. cross wing, two brick fireplaces with depressed four-centred heads and two plank doors divided into six panels by applied stiles and muntins. Some of the floor boards are old. The W. cross wing has intersecting and stop-chamfered ceiling beams in the S. room on the ground floor; also a stair with flat pear-shaped balusters and square newels with acorn finials.

^c(18) West Green Farm, house (Class U), of two storeys with cellars; white brick with hipped slated roof; c. 1850.

^c(19) Houses, a pair treated as a cottage orné with central chimney, dated 1847; of one storey with attics, framed and plastered, with tiled roof (cf. Orwell (19)).

^c(20) The Royal Oak (Plate 36), house (Class C), now a public house, is of two storeys, framed and rendered, with a thatched roof gabled to the E. and hipped to the W. It is late mediaeval, but has had a floor inserted in the hall in the 17th century; it was modernised in 1953–4, when the ground floor was gutted and a full-height oriel on the N. side of the hall removed. The surviving structural timbers in the N. elevation are now exposed; they include a doorway with four-centred head (Plate 9) at the junction of the E. cross wing and the main range. A plaster shield with two cheverons and some charges, unheraldically disposed, including a crescent and an anvil(?), has been reset more or less in its original position. Inside no features of interest are now visible. The roof over the main range was inspected in 1953; it was of plain tie-beam and crown-post construction and had been darkened by smoke.

^c(21) Westgate Farm, house (Class J), perhaps early 18th-century, of two storeys and attics, has a main elevation in red brick N. to the green, but is otherwise framed and plastered. The roof is half-hipped and tiled.

^c(22) Westgate House, two storeys and attics, is of brick with clunch dressings and is roofed with tile. It is substantially 18th-century with modern additions but incorporates an earlier, probably 17th-century, structure at the N.W. end.

The principal elevation, N.E. to the Orwell road, is of five bays with central front door and hung-sash windows, those in the earlier portion being irregularly placed. Inside, some chamfered ceiling beams are exposed. The main stair, housed in a square stair hall at the back, rises in three flights with half landings to the first floor; it has turned balusters, moulded rail and close string.

^c(23) House, of two storeys, framed and plastered, with a thatched roof gabled at both ends. It is late mediaeval and is jettied at first floor level on the N.E. side to the road; there was a similar overhang on the S.W. side but the ground floor wall has been rebuilt in the same vertical plane as the upper stage. No trace of an original fireplace was found and the building may have had a special purpose. Apart from a few exposed timbers no features of interest are visible internally.

^a(24) Wilsmere Down Farm (N.G. TL 388508; Plate 44), house and buildings, c. 1800, is of interest as an example of farmstead lay-out at that date. The House (Class U) is of two storeys, of white brick with hipped roofs covered with modern tiles. The Buildings are grouped around a rectangular enclosure, some 70 yds. by 50 yds., with the house at the S. corner. These are mostly framed and boarded, with thatched roofs; early 19th-century.

^c(25) Orwell Mill (N.G. TL 386493; Plate 27), a tower windmill of four stages, is built of clunch ashlar. According to an inscription on the ground floor it was started on 17th September 1822. Access to the upper stages is by an inside wooden staircase fitted to the wall. The sails are now decayed and the driving shaft and much of the machinery have been removed.

^a(26–39) Houses (Plate 44), framed and plastered, practically all of internal-chimney designs (Class J predominating), though some have been much altered; mostly single-storeyed with attics, and with thatched roofs having half-hipped or gabled ends; 17th- and in some cases perhaps 18th-century.

Earthworks

^a(40) Moated site (Class A4), in Barrington Hall grounds (N.G. TL 396501). Two sides of the moat, N. and W., remain. These, with a stream on the E. side form an irregular quadrilateral 384 ft. by 184 ft. with a wet ditch 25 ft. to 30 ft. wide. The interior is now an orchard and kitchen garden and the site seems to have been much altered by 18th- and 19th-century garden developments.

^c(41) Moated site (?) (N.G. TL 392493). The moat is a quadrilateral bounded on three sides, N. 150 ft., W. 90 ft., and E. 60 ft., by a flat-bottomed ditch 35 ft. wide and 2 ft. to 3 ft. deep; the river Rhee forms the fourth, S., side. A scarp facing S. prolongs the line of the N. side at both ends. This site is apparently the larger and more easterly of the two moats mapped side by side in 1836 (O.S. 1" 1836; not on modern editions). It lies in a pasture field.

^c(42) Mound (N.G. TL 393499), pear-shaped, lies E. and W. on flat ground on chalk marl. It is 106 ft. long, 5 ft. high with a flat top 24 ft. across at the broader, W., end, decreasing in height gradually eastwards. On the S. is a ditch 9 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep; there are traces of a ditch also to the W. The mound, which may be the result of landscape gardening, is covered with trees and surrounded by pasture.

(43) Cultivation remains (not on O.S.) consist of ridge and furrow, and strip lynchets:

(a) Ridge and furrow survives as earthworks in one place only, immediately E. of Orwell village (around N.G. TL 369503), with seven ridges 200 yds. long, 7 yds. wide and 1 ft. high; these are in an old enclosure.

Traces of ridge and furrow are visible on air photographs between 372508 and 400506; they were formerly bounded on the N.W. by a lynchet 170 yds. long, now destroyed. These traces are of strips belonging to the open fields enclosed in 1796; a terrier of 1613 states that at Christmas 1610 a 'Middle' Field was formed between 'East' and 'West' Fields, and classifies the arable land as 'white land', 'red land' and 'low field'.

(b) Strip lynchets, in Hill Plantation (around N.G. TL 375507). Fragments of five strip lynchets run N. and S. along and across the S.W. slopes of a hill. Their dimensions vary from 30 yds. to 120 yds. long with risers 6 ins. to 7 ft. high and treads 5 yds. to 11 yds. wide. At the S. end, where all run down an 8° slope on to the arable surrounding the plantation, a ledge 3 yds. wide and 2 ft. high between the two lowest seems to be the remains of natural slope between positive and negative lynchets. Only two strip lynchets run through to the N. end of the plantation where their risers are 15 ft. to 18 ft. high. The two highest have quarter-round N. ends. Except at the S. the slope along the treads is slight, but the slope across them varies from 5° to 9°. All are covered with trees and scrub.

(c) Strip lynchet, in Balk Plantation (around N.G. TL 390512). The site is half way up the W. slope of a spur 200 ft. above O.D. The lynchet runs in a wide curve from N.N.W. to S.S.W. for 300 yds. but was probably 50 yds. longer at the S. end. The tread is 15 yds. wide with a slope along it of 2° to 3°; the riser is 20 ft. at the S. gradually decreasing towards the N. The S. end has been destroyed by a quarry and the tread is ploughed.

(Ref: terrier, 1613 (B.M. Add. MS. 36,228, 1–16); terrier, 1687; meadow book, 1695; enclosure map, 1796 (all three in C.R.O.); air photographs: 106G/UK/1718/3151–7, 3181–3, 4151–6).