ALLAN T. ADAMS, PETER JARVIS AND EDWARD LEGG
Rectory Cottages, near the parish church at Bletchley, contains a rare secular example of a medieval hammer-beam roofed hall, probably built c.1475 by the de Grey family who were lords of the manor. Though well-known since 1913 it has never till now been recorded in detail.
Description
Rectory Cottages (SP 863336) are L-shaped in plan, the top of the L being at the West end, the angle at the South-East and the short end of the L to the North (see plan, Fig. 2).
At the W end lies the hammer-beamed hall which is the principal feature of interest (P1. I). It is about 27 ft (8 m) long, 18 ft (5.34 m) wide and 25 ft (7.4 m) high to the apex of the roof. There is no sign of a passage; the marginally better-carved faces of the trusses face East. The principal members of the end trusses are tie beams which support queen struts and collar beams (Fig. 3c). Arch braces rise from the queen struts to the collar beams, and curved braces from the main posts to the tie beams. The two intermediate trusses are of true hammer beam construction. The hammer beams have curved braces from the main posts and support hammer posts which, together with arch braces, support the collar beams (Fig. 3a). The hammer beams have crudely carved heads on their inner ends (Pls. II - IV) and one is known to have a dovetail tenon 14 in (355 mm) wide at its outer end: presumably the others are similar. There is some simple ornamental tracery in the spandrels of the hammer beams. Between the two hammer beams on the N side is a smaller hammer beam reaching out some 3 ft (910 mm) into the hall and bearing a lugubrious carved head (Pl.V and Fig. 3b), with a hammer post ostensibly supporting the lower of the moulded purlins above it. There is good evidence for the former existence of five more such hammers at the halfway position of each bay on both sides of the building (Fig. 3d).
The roof of the hall is open, having the rafters halved and coupled at their apices. There are two sets of purlins, trenched into the backs of the principal rafters. The purlins have curved weatherbraces below; most are original but there are two replacements.
The wall plate on the N side is original and has moulded cornice boards (Fig. 4g): that on the S has lost its cornice boards and, being found frac-tured behind the SW hammer beam in 1968, has had its W end replaced. The moulded wall posts had rotted at their lower ends and were reset onto a new pair of sill beams. There was no evidence of how they had originally been reared: we found no remains of earlier sill beams nor padstones, nor of any stone foundation under the hall. The hall framing had in its upper parts a number of large downward curved braces from the wall posts mortised into a middle rail.
The E end tie-beam truss (Fig. 3c) has a horizontal transom some 8 ft (2.4 m) from the ground and vertical studs 2 ft (600 mm) apart: it is of poor quality and seems to be a later in-sertion, perhaps as late as the eighteenth century. The W end tie beam truss has no infilling nor any sign that it ever had any. This truss is not parallel with the others, the bay being a foot (300 mm) shorter on the S side. There has been a door head cut into the tie beam, possibly to allow entry to an upper storey beyond: the gap was repaired in 1968. The W end wall appears to be modern - it does not match the truss. At the time of the restoration the training of an old pear tree indicated that there had been a continuation W on the S side, but excavation showed no sign of any foundation. The remains of the ends of two flimsy clasped purlins above the W end collar beam are presumably from this structure.