Stoneacre is a charming, half-timbered gentleman's house dating from about 1480.
Yeoman farmers of this time built to a standard pattern that had remained unchanged for generations.
The core of the house was a central hall open to the rafters.
Screened from the hall on either side were two floors of smaller chambers. These rooms provided the privacy that was increasingly demanded in an age of communal living.
By the end of the First World War Stoneacre had become derelict. However, in the 1920s the building was extensively and painstakingly restored by Aymer Valance.
The house seen today is thus a scholarly recreation of a Tudor timber -framed house rather than an unaltered original building.
The door on the main front, with its Elizabethan lock and 16th century Flemish knocker, leads into the great hall. This room is spanned by magnificent timberwork.
A rare and beautiful kingpost, formed by a cluster of four engaged shafts, is the most remarkable feature of the house. The oak screens are original and the hall is much as it would have been in 1480. However, the central hearth was replaced by Mr Valance with a 15th century fireplace and from this a brick chimney, built in the 1920s, rises the height of the hall.
To the east and west of the hall, two enormous twelve-light leaded windows catch the morning and evening sunlight.
The 15th century great hall with its solar block to the south now forms the centrepiece of a much larger house.
Timber, windows and furnishings from dilapidated Tudor houses were collected by Mr Valance and used to construct half-timbered wings. The north-west wing, for example, incorporates 16th and 17th century timber-framing from North Bere Place.
These new wings are in total harmony with the original medieval building.
Stoneacre is now in the care of the National Trust.
Outside there is a newly restored cottage garden. More on the garden
