[Illustration: Norman Clamp on door of Heybridge Church, Essex]
[Illustration: Tudor Fire-place. Now walled up in the passage of a
shop in Banbury]
The Rector of Haughton calls attention to a curious old house which
certainly ought to be preserved if it has not yet quite vanished.
"It is completely hidden from the public gaze. Right away in the
fields, to be reached only by footpath, or by strangely circuitous
lane, in the parish of Ranton, there stands a little old
half-timbered house, known as the Vicarage Farm. Only a very
practised eye would suspect the treasures that it contains.
Entering through the original door, with quaint knocker intact,
you are in the kitchen with a fine open fire-place, noble beam,
and walls panelled with oak. But the principal treasure consists
in what I have heard called 'The priest's room.' I should venture
to put the date of the house at about 1500--certainly
pre-Reformation. How did it come to be there? and what purpose did
it serve? I have only been able to find one note which can throw
any possible light on the matter. Gough says that a certain Rose
(Dunston?) brought land at Ranton to her husband John Doiley; and
he goes on: 'This man had the consent of William, the Prior of
Ranton, to erect a chapel at Ranton.
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