Fig Tree House/Grosmont House, East Street (RCHM 15, SMR 16366)

Description
Fig Tree House and the eastern part of the building, Grosmont House, contain the remains of a two-bay medieval open hall with, at the west end, a later cross wing. It is likely that there was additional accommodation attached to the east end of the hall either in the form of an in-line bay or, more likely, a cross wing. The building now forms two tenements; Fig Tree House, at the west end, occupies the cross wing and the western bay of the hall whilst Grosmont House is substantially within the eastern bay of the hall. Much of the south elevation has been refronted in brick and an additional gable added to the centre, probably in the 19th century. More recently, the north (rear) elevations of both hall and cross wing have been extended. The cruck blades and purlins are accessible only in the extremely small roof space. Grosmont House was for sale at the time of the sampling and assessment visits and access was impracticable. Within the Fig Tree House section of the roof one cruck blade has broken and been repaired and this was identified as being of poplar/willow timber. This probably explains its vulnerability to fracture compared to the oak cruck blades elsewhere in the village. They appear to be enormous and have decorative cusping. There was evidently a shortage of suitable timber, or a shortage of money to buy suitable timber, for the cruck blades here since as well as the poplar/willow blade one of the oak cruck blades has a very sophisticated and relatively discreet scarf joint at the top indicating the timber was too short for its intended function.

Sampling
Samples 1-4 were obtained from the hall range of this building.