Kettle's

Details

INGATESTONE AND FRYERNING TQ69NW TRUELOVES LANE, Ingatestone 723-1/6/418 (South West side) Kettle's GV II Wrongly shown on OS map as Kettle's Place. House. Mid-C16, altered and extended in early C19 to form 2 cottages, now combined; extended and renovated in C20. Timber-framed, plastered and weatherboarded, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2 bays facing NE with late C16 axial internal stack at right end, early C19 external stack at left end. Early C19 extension at each end, aligning with rear wall, with narrower span and lower roof than original. C19/20 lean-to to rear of right extension with internal stack, C20 single-storey wing to rear of left extension. 2 storeys. All windows are C20 casements. Two C20 plain boarded doors in C20 porch at front, to left of centre, with hipped roof of handmade red clay tiles. The original left tie-beam projects at the front left corner, plastered, and a sloping board across the front elevation defines the original eaves height, before the roof was raised in the early C19. C20 plain boarded door and C20 lean-to porch at left side, roofed with machine-made red clay tiles. Weatherboarded dado at front and both ends and round right lean-to. Original left wall weatherboarded where it projects in front of and above left extension. Some exposed false framing on left gable of left extension, and on rear left extension, which is roofed with machine-made red clay tiles. Rear wall of original building weatherboarded. All the remainder plastered and roofed with handmade tiles. INTERIOR: jowled posts, with arched braces from corner posts to wallplates inside heavy studding, not trenched. Arched braces to central tie-beam. As originally built this comprised a storeyed left bay and a hall bay to the right, open from ground to roof, with some form of chimney at the right end, probably timber-framed. Before 1601 the present brick stack was inserted at the right end; then or in the C17 a floor was inserted in this bay. The original floor in the left bay is of plain joists of horizontal section arranged longitudinally, with some replacements and a later supporting beam below; some early hardwood boards. The floor in the right bay has a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops, plain joists of vertical section, and original rebated hardwood boards, almost complete. Original plain doorway in rear wall of right bay, blocked by later stair. Original studding between the bays, sill altered in C20. End tie-beams severed for doorways to C19 extensions. Central tie-beam notched for an inserted doorway above it, later blocked. The roof of the original cottage has been raised approximately one metre, leaving the 3 transverse frames in situ to their apices. The stack at the right end retains its original clay mortar; width of hearth reduced. The insertion of a stair in the left bay, for the C19 conversion to 2 cottages, and its later removal, has caused some disturbance of the joists, and the insertion of a transverse beam supporting the joists is related to this alteration. The early C19 roof has wallplates bridled to straight tie-beams. HISTORICAL NOTE: this cottage is described in a survey of 1556 as `a tenement called Kettles', 25 feet long, 18 feet wide, 8 feet high to the eaves (corresponding with the present dimensions of the main building) with a thatched roof, with a holding of 7 acres, tenant John Pepper. It is mentioned in court rolls in 1556, 1560, 1573, 1575, 1576 (twice), 1579, 1586, and 1601. It is illustrated in the Walker map of 1601 as a simple building with a door and brick chimney near the right end, 3 windows and a thatched roof; the plot shown on the Walker map corresponds exactly with the present site. Immediately to the NW Trueloves Lane was diverted in the C19 from its original line towards Trueloves, to follow a curved field boundary SW of it, now forming the N boundary of Kettle's (Essex Record Office). Small 2-bay houses of this
early origin are rare, and this has survived in remarkably intact form. It is unique in being fully documented, described and illustrated in the period 1556-1601. (Essex Record Office: D/DP M.170 M96-101).

Listing NGR: TQ6367298848

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

373704

Legacy System:

LBS

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