Building record 1040/1/2 - Toad Hall (including the Old Medicine House)

Toad Hall, including the Old Medicine House, Blackden. Late 16th century cottage with 20th century link to c.1600 house which was removed from Wrinehill in Staffordshire and re-erected here in 1972. Toad Hall is brickwork and brick nogged timber framing, formerly thatched, now with corrugated sheet roof. Four truss bays. 17 small framing panels in length and four panels wide. Central outshut is three panels long and two panels wide. Front wall and gable-end rebuilt in brickwork. Interior: Stone slab floor. Three crucks. Chamfered purlins,wind braces, old thatch rafters. The Old Medicine House is timber framed with plastered panels and tiled roof. T-shaped plan. Close studding. Sandstone plinth. Cove-jettied gables with chevron infilling. Interior: Axial firehood to fireplace heating two rooms, with moulded beam. Ogee door heads. Chamfered ceiling beams and exposed joists (1). Full architectural description (2). History of the hall building (3) Dendrochronology Dating: Felling date: Winter 1551/2. Re-used cruck (1/2) 1551(22C); principal post (0/1); studs (0/2); ridge (0/1); purlin (0/1); tiebeam (0/1). Site Master 1432-1551 toad8 (t=7.6 IGHTFIELD; 6.3 WALES97; 6.2 EASTMID)
Toad Hall (T’owd Hall) is a long range of three wide bays (18 foot, 19 foot, and 17 foot), each probably originally of six framing panels three squares high, with short straight corner braces. The framing survives well on the NE side but elsewhere was largely built away in brick during the mid-late 18th century; the house was divided into a pair of labourers’ cottages at the end of the 19th century. Bay 1 comprises a cross-passage and service room with an upper chamber and attic loft; bay 2 contains the hall (originally open) with inserted smoke hood and upper floor and bay 3 is a floored inner room. The end trusses are of post, tiebeam and rafter construction, but the two internal trusses have pairs of upper crucks standing on dropped tiebeams; one of the blades shows clear signs both of reuse from an earlier structure and of insertion into the present structure, presumably following the failure of the original blade. Pointers to re-use include the pegging (here single, as against double elsewhere), carpenter’s marks (position and form), secondary jointing and features of handling during erection, none of which are found elsewhere in the house. Only eight dendrochronology samples were even marginally suitable, and the only datable sample was from this inserted blade. Since we do not know the duration of the cruck’s original career in the structure for which the timber was felled in 1551/2, the single date provides no direct terminus for Toad Hall’s primary fabric. That fabric is likely to be older, although Toad Hall could have been built after 1552, between the felling date for the cruck and before its reuse in the house. Dating commissioned by Richard Morris on behalf of the owners, Alan and Griselda Garner. (Miles and Worthington 2000, VA 31, list 107) (4)

<1> Department of the Environment, 1971-2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, /2/23 (Report). SCH1934.

<2> Department for the Environment, Various, Provisional List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, /1/28 1980 (Report). SCH2744.

<3> Garner J, 1986, The Dark Valley. An investigation of the history of one of the richest archaeological sites in Britain (Unpublished Document). SCH3116.

<4> Various, Written Communication to the HER, Morris RK 15 Aug 05 (Written Communication). SCH3756.