A 'wealden' House Converted To 'continuous Jetty' Type

A Memory of Tenterden.

Interesting photo: this timber-framed building is actually a 'Wealden' converted to 'Continuous Jetty' type.

"Towards the close of the 15th century, an entirely new kind of dwelling appeared in the Weald. Its [the Continuous Jetty type] distribution is wide and more general than that of the 'Wealden' house, and it is extremely common in East Anglia. Whether developed in either of the areas where it is found, or imported as a complete design, it is impossible to say.

It was the first vernacular house type in the region to be constructed with two stories throughout. Although the hall was retained as a principal room it was not open to the roof; it was floored over as part of the initial construction and a chamber fomed above. There can be little doubt that the growing popularity of this house [type] during the first half of the 16th century provided a very strong stimulus towards the flooring-over and conversion of earlier halls.

It tends to be an urban type, found mainly in the villages and towns and is rareley found as an isolated farmhouse as the 'Wealden' occasionally is.

The type may be recognised by its chief distinguishing feature—the fact that jettying is continuous through the whole front elevation, and clearly a single-storied hall in such a building is a structural impossibility as there could in such case be no projecting joist ends to the central portion.

It should be noted that a house falls into this class only if the jettying follows one uniform level throughout the whole of the front. If the central jettying is slightly higher, then it is probably a 'Wealden' house altered to simulate this type.

The Tudor Rose Café at Tenterden and two cottages north-west of the George Inn at Robertsbridge are good examples of such conversion.

It [the 'Continuous Jetty' type] is the only Wealden house type which may be regarded as transitional and therefore evolutionary. It lies between the medieval and the modern and embodies the characteristics of both." Mason R T. Framed buildings of the Weald, 42. Horsham, Coach Publishing House, 1964