Fowlers Wells appears to have originated as an early 16th C timber-framed open hall farmhouse which in the 17^th century was converted to a symmetrical brick house. Two bays of the mediaeval house remain with some fine arched braces and an open truss.

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Fowlers Wells in its original form It comprised a barn-like open hall. In the centre of the floor would have been an open hearth, the smoke from which escaped from the top corner of the hip roof. A first floor platform was inserted at the east end of the hall to provide sleeping quarters for the owner and family. The area below was walled off to make utility rooms. Illustration: David Stokes

A DBRG survey concluded that the house was originally a two and half bay timber-framed open hall. At the east end was inserted a platform with the family's bedroom (solar) above and service rooms below. The service room may have been divided longitudinally, as was usual, into a buttery and pantry.

In this part of Surrey, hall houses were constructed until about 1540. The introduction of two storeys throughout meant that an open hearth became impractical.  It became normal practice to partition off a part of the first floor of the house - the 'smoke bay' to take the smoke directly up to the roof space.^p261 When in the second half of the 16th C chimneys were introduced, they generally were built in the position of the smoke bay and often, as is probably the case with Fowlers Wells, obliterated any evidence for the smoke bay.

At the back of the house is an outshot under a catslide roof that extends the length of the original house. Outshots became popular in the south-east during the latter half of the 17th C ^p133.  They enabled the service rooms to be moved to the back of the house. But it appears likely that the outshot at Fowlers Wells was added quite soon after the house was constructed since the timbers in the dividing wall are only partly weathered on the 'outside' surface.  Nowhere does timber framing show in the outshot, there are many inscribed and dated bricks around the walls. A blocked door in the outshot led out probably to the well (the well as it existed in 2004 is a resited reconstruction - the original was at the drain in the patio). The blocked door and a door from the hall are in line with a window at the front of the house. This is probably the position of the original front door which may have led into a 'screens passage' which mitigated drafts and allowed the servants to move from the back of the house to the service rooms without passing through the hall.

On the first floor there are fine chamfered arched braces with four pegs, and a chamfered tie beam.

The roof is clasped purlin with wind braces, the principal rafters are pegged and reduce in size above the purlin. The rafters above the middle bay are smoke blackened. The roof of the chimney bay appears to be original but the rest of the hall and the roof has been rebuilt. The substantial tie-beam at the western end of the middle bay shows no signs of ever having supported a queen post or any other verticals.  

Apparently in the 17^th century the house was substantially upgraded. The chimney was built and the half bay at the western end of the house made up to a full two-storey bay, the ground floor of which probably became the family's parlour.  At this time, or perhaps within a century, the house was converted to a prosperous 'yeoman farmer-style' residence by moving the entrance to a more central location and probably repositioning the windows to provide a pleasing symmetrical effect. By the beginning of the 17th C this style of house, known as a 'central-lobby house', had become universally accepted in the South-east of England. The whole house was clad with brick in an attempt to hide its rustic timber-frame origins. It is likely that the screens passage was removed and an entrance lobby was built which allowed farm servants to enter the hall (which became a kitchen/communal dining room) and service rooms without disturbing the family in the parlour. The entrance lobby appears to have been built of already blackened used timbers. As brick became easier to obtain, the traditional compacted earth floor would have been laid with brick on sand - similar to today's brick paviour drives. Rather more comfortable but still without a damp-proof membrane.

The chimney was inserted in the western half bay abutting the middle bay. The tie-beam which encloses the chimney bay at the eastern end of the western bay is an arched and rather rustic piece of elm.  The chimney stack has a large inglenook hearth and large stones in the back of the stack which would have radiated heat throughout the night into the adjoining parlour. There is a salt shelf. On the north side of the chimney a blocked arch shows where was once a domed bread oven. The interior of these ovens was heated by burning wood, or in our area gorse, and when hot the ash was raked out, the bread inserted and the opening sealed. In 1975 it was observed that the chimney is split and that on the south side a bacon loft retained the bars for hanging flitches of bacon for curing. This smoke room has now been converted to an inglenook. The house was unusual in that there is no direct heating for the parlour, it was usual for there to be two hearths back to back: a large one for the kitchen and a smaller for the parlour.  At Fowlers Wells the parlour is heated only by heat radiating from the back of the chimney. Does this indicate that the two-storey west extension was built sometime after the single chimney was added to the end of the hall-kitchen?

The floors have been lowered throughout. The first floor ceilings have been raised and now lie within the roof space with sloping sides that follow the joists. A two-storey east-end cross wing was built out over the outshot in 1747.

At some time, probably either when the kitchen was moved from the former hall to the outshot or when coal replaced wood as a fuel, the cooking hearth became redundant and was bricked in and two small grates inserted to provide heat to the rooms either side.

Originally the house must have been thatched but by 1975 was tiled.

In the 1960s the house was derelict and demolition was planned.  But fortunately it was restored and rented out. The windows were all replaced.

To the north of the house is a Grade 2 listed wood-framed barn. Much of the framing has been filled with brick nogging, except on the side not seen from the house where wooden weatherboarding is used.  The roof was replaced at the end of the 20th century.  It is now difficult to date the barn - the timbers vary greatly: one piece apparently early 16th century but others obviously much later.

A survey conducted in 2005 by the Rod Wild of the Surrey Dendrochronology Project showed that, apart from one timber, the oak used was too fast grown to be able to provide sufficient rings to accurately date the building.

Written by David Stokes who visited the house in 2004 and 2005 (and with information provided by Joy Mason who surveyed the house in 1975).