Yeomans Cottage - Church Lane - Shearsby, Leicestershire - Thatch Cottages on Waymarking.com

"Yeoman’s Cottage. This old farmhouse is in many ways one of the most fascinating in Leicestershire. Standing up to the road the symmetrical arrangement of the front of the house shows how the country builder, using traditional materials and methods, such as the jettying of the upper floors, designed and created a building of good proportions. It is most fortunate that the continued occupation up to recent years ensured the preservation in its original layout. A few alterations and additions have been made to make it a house to live in at the present time, but in other respects the house bears all the characteristics of a yeoman's farmhouse of the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

The outer walls are of substantial oak timber framing standing on stone foundations. Some of the beams came from previous buildings. There is a cruck timber showing on the side of the house. The panels between the framing were originally filled in with wattle and daub, of which some remain. The picturesque roof is thatched with Norfolk reed. At the rear of the house the area was cobbled in kidney shaped stones for the farmyard. In the corner is situated the original stone well. Also at the rear are the stables and barn, now converted to garage utility and garden room.

All the rooms inside have oak beamed ceilings. Two large rooms have the original open ingle-nook fireplaces with herringbone backs and recesses which were used to keep tinder and salt. The upper floor is reached from the dining room by a quaint twisting old oak stairway which then leads three ways. From the landing can be seen a small gallery and part of the raftered roof made from roughly hewn oak trees jointed and fastened with wooden pegs. There is another oak stairway at the far end of the house.

In the four attic rooms are a wealth of beams and rafters which represent the antiquity of the roof and truss construction, the workmanship of long dead craftsmen. Whether the floors of the bedrooms were built level is not known, but they all slope today; one bedroom sloping twelve inches in fifteen feet. The diagonal struts on the projecting gable facing the church serve perhaps more a decorative rather than a structural purpose, but form a charming pattern. The top of this gable is over three feet out of perpendicular with the base of the house. On this gable is the date 1669 but the timber framing may well be earlier. Next to the date is inscribed Wyatt J, this being John Wyatt the yeoman farmer who lived there at that time and who is buried opposite where the family tombstone stands in the churchyard.

A Sun fire insurance plate can be seen fixed at the left of the date."

SOURCE - (visit link)

Instructions for Visiting a Waymark: To claim a find, you must submit a photo of the cottage, taken from a different angle to the one shown on the page. The photo should show at least one of the walls of the cottage in full, and preferably it should show some of the surrounding landscape or buildings. If possible, you should also be in the photograph. Roof Type: Roof has Straw covering Wall Type: Walls are constructed from Stone Construction Date: 16th Century Building Rating: Related web site if known: [Web Link] Location: Yeomans Cottage Church Lane Shearsby, Leicestershire England Parking: Not Listed

Visit Instructions:
To claim a find, you must submit a photo of the cottage, taken from a different angle to the one shown on the page. The photo should show at least one of the walls of the cottage in full, and preferably it should show some of the surrounding landscape or buildings. If possible, you should also be in the photograph.

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