BLACK DRAPES

House. Probably early C18, altered later C18, early C19, mid C19 and c1900. Chalk rubblestone with red brick dressings, painted; some brick to additions. Welsh slate roof. 2 storeys with loft, 2 wide bays; 2-storey wing added to rear left, probably C18, and 2-storey outshutadded to rear right, probably early C19. Symmetrical facade having: brick quoins; central C19 door of 6 raised and fielded panels in later, mid-late C19, cast iron decorative porch with swept roof flanked by c1900 canted bay windows with casements and flat roofs, parts of timber secondary lintels visible over door and right-hand window; on 1st floor, 2 segmental header-brick arched, 3 light windows; brick end stacks, that to right of old brick. Rear: the inner return of the wing has a segmental-arched window to ground floor, right, and a tripartite, 3-light, wood-mullion window with leaded glazing to 1st floor; brick end stack; C20 lean-to additions not of special interest. Left return: main range has end of iron tie-rod; timber linteled loft window, and fretted, decorative barge boards (of c1900). Wing has one old 2-light wood-framed window to ground floor with diamond-set mullions, saddle bars and leaded glazing tied on; 2-light window to 1st floor. Left return: main range has loft window and barge boards as before; small 4-pane window to outshut with 2-light window above. Interior: throughout chamfered beams (boxed in on ground floor of main range) and early C19 board doors, some beaded, with iron hinges; main range ground-floor rooms have early panelled shutters (fireplaces are c1900). Wooden winder stair to loft which has wide floor boards and 5 roof trusses of principal rafters with one set of butt purlins, diagonally set ridge piece, old rafters and long raking wind braces; the end stacks are of rubblestone, becoming circular below the brick tops; traces of former thatched roof. LBO

Italian, about 1490-95
Artist: Vittore Carpaccio
Oil on panel
This view of cormorant hunters on a lagoon was cut from the top of a panel, now in the Correr Museum, Venice, that depicts Venetian women on a balcony. The iron hinge on the back panel indicates that the panel may have functioned as a decorative shutter or as a cabinet door. The illusionistic letter rack on the back is one of the earliest known examples of Italian 'trompe l'oeil' painting.