Old Timbers

Details

KELVEDON CHURCH STREET TL 8418-8518 (north-east side)

9/144 No. 1 (Old Timbers) 21.12.67 GV II

House. C15 and early C16, altered in C20. Timber framed, plastered with exposed framing (including C20 replacement), roofed with handmade red plain tiles. C15 2-bay hall facing SW, with early C16 stack at right end in front of axis. Early C16 3-bay crosswing to right, extending to rear. C20 external stack and C20 single-storey lean-to extension to left of rear bay of crosswing. Hall of one storey with attic, crosswing of 2 storeys. Ground floor, one C20 casement, and one splayed bay of C20 casements below jetty of crosswing, adapted from earlier shop window. First floor, one C20 casement, and one more in gabled dormer. 2 plain boarded doors. 2 plain brackets below jetty. Cambered tiebeam of crosswing moulded at each end, plain in the middle, indicating a former oriel. Much of the exposed framing of the hall is C20 replacement. That of the crosswing is mainly original, with replaced timbers round the first-floor window. Close studding, with curved tension braces trenched to the outside. Stack rebuilt above roof level. A photograph in RCHM shows the house plastered, with the same dormer, and others abutting to the left, since demolished. Most of the wall framing of the hall has been replaced. Early C17 inserted floor, comprising 2 transverse beams and plain joists of vertical section, with much C20 replacement. Some rebated hardwood floorboards in left bay, fixed with C20 nails. Original smoke-blackened rafters and collars of a crownpost roof, the collar-purlin and crownposts missing. The ground level has risen considerably, outside and inside. The frame of the crosswing is substantially complete and original. Jowled posts, 2 chamfered binding beams with step stops, joists of horizontal section, hollow-moulded in the front and middle bays (except below the stair), plain in the rear bay. The present stair at the rear of the middle bay occupies the same position as the original stair, with minor enlargement of the trap. The joists are jointed to the binding beams with central tenons with housed soffits, scribed to the profile of the moulding where appropriate. The lower storey was originally unpartitioned; original studded partition between the middle and rear bays in the upper storey. Unglazed window complete with 3 diamond mullions and groove for sliding shutter to right of middle bay of ground floor, in exceptionally good condition because it has been blocked externally since soon after construction. Diamond mortices and shutter grooves for other unglazed windows in upper storey in front and rear bays of right wall, and at rear. Cambered tiebeam between front and rear bays with 2 chamfered arched braces 0.10 metre wide. Butt-purlin roof with arched collar and curved wind-bracing. Slightly splayed and bridled scarf in left wallplate. Early C16 wood-burning hearths back to back, in hall and crosswing. That in the crosswing has a chamfered mantel beam with quadrant curves in the soffit at each end now embedded in the brickwork, indicating some alteration. That in the hall has chamfered jambs, a similar mantel beam with cranked top, and above, 3 hollow-moulded niches with 4-centred heads. One similar niche in rear of stack. C17/18 plank and muntin partition of pine on the first floor of the crosswing, between the front and middle bays, with original doorway through, a rare feature meriting special care. This house abuts closely against nos. 1-5 High Street to the right; the 3 unglazed windows in the right wall indicate that this house was on the site first. There are close similarities of construction between the crosswing and nos. 1-5 High Street (item 9/159, q.v.): (1) the unusual type of scarf, (2) the roof construction, rare in Essex at this period, (3) the hearths with niches, (4) the bricks of which they are built, identical with those recorded in the original cellar of no. 3 High Street. The similarities indicate that both were built by the carpenters of the Abbot of Westminster, and that little time elapsed between them, the smaller house in Church Street determining how far the SW wing of the larger building could extend. RCHM 6.

Listing NGR: TL8589818430

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

116457

Legacy System:

LBS

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