Richards Cottage

Details

INGATESTONE AND FRYERNING

TL60SW MILL GREEN COMMON 723-1/2/410 Richards Cottage

II House. Early C15, extended in C20. Timber-framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2-bay service cross-wing facing SW, of a former hall-house extending to the SE of which the remainder is missing. C16/early C17 internal stack in right side of front bay. One-bay extension to rear, of narrower span, aligning on the left side, with C18 external stack to left, truncated about 2m above ground. 2 storeys. C20 extension of one storey with attics to right of rear extension, and C20 single-storey extension to rear, the whole forming an irregular T-plan. The 2-bay cross-wing is jettied to the front, with one original plain bracket and one introduced grown knee in place of a bracket, and two C20 posts supporting the corners of the jetty. All windows are C20 casements. C20 door in right side of rear wing. Original wide rafters and sprockets are exposed below the left eaves. The right wall of the 2-bay cross-wing is faced with plastered brickwork to first-floor level. The roof of the cross-wing has a gablet hip at the rear, and the roof of the rear extension also has a gablet hip. INTERIOR: the cross-wing has jowled posts and heavy studding at 0.75m centres with curved tension braces trenched to the outside; some studs of the lower storey have been replaced. The rear girt has been replaced, and the studs below it, omitted. Plain joists of horizontal section, jointed to the binding beam with unrefined central tenons; the binding beam has mortices and a wattle groove for a former partition between the service bays. A post hollow-chamfered on one side, and 2 hollow-chamfered 4-centred doorheads have been moved from their original positions and re-assembled behind the chimney, the front doorhead now at the rear; post and one doorhead repaired. Large wood-burning hearth with 0.33m jambs, the rear jamb repointed with cement mortar; some alteration at the rear of the hearth, perhaps indicating the removal of another hearth back to back with the one remaining; mantel beam replaced; cast-iron fireback with the arms of Charles I, reported to be in situ. Groove for shutter visible below the jetty. On the first floor, in the left wall is a blocked unglazed window with one diamond mullion; no visible evidence of shuttering arrangement. Tie-beam at front replaced and plastered over. Cambered central tie-beam with 2 arched braces 0.10m wide, rebated into the jowls. Original collar-rafter roof. The rear extension appears to be of the same date as the cross-wing, removed at an early date from its original site and rebuilt in its present position. Its span is only 3m, compared with the 4.27m span of the cross-wing, its wallplates are lower, and it is not structurally integrated, as a designed extension would be; it may be the parlour/solar bay of the missing hall range. The lower studs of the rear wall have been removed; 2 diamond mortices of an original unglazed window are exposed, 0.07m square. The remaining studs, and the pegging for missing studs, are at the same wide spacing as in the cross-wing. In the upper right wall an unglazed window has been inserted between 2 studs which retain the wattle fixings of the former infill. It comprises 2 diamond mullions 0.05m square properly housed into a sill, which is lapped and nailed to the studs, but the mullions are not housed into the wallplate. The floor is plastered to the soffit. A mortice in the left girt probably indicates the position of a former stair trap. The roof is plastered to the soffit but original rafters are exposed at the right, cut off against the wallplate; they have gauging holes. HISTORICAL NOTE: this house was named Boxwood Cottage until recent years, but is well documented under the name Richards in the Petre archives. A survey of 1556 described it as 33 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 8 feet high to the eaves, with a tiled roof; the holding had an orchard, 2 crofts and a grove of 8 acres, which implies that it was more concerned with the local pottery and tile industry than with agriculture. The Walker map of 1601 shows it as having a low hall range with central door and chimney, one window to each side, and a gabled 2-storey cross-wing to the right, with tiled roofs - apparently a left-right reversal of the house as indicated by the physical evidence (Essex Record Office). Stripped to the frame and altered by John Amor, Architect, in 1970. (Essex Record Office: D/DP M.170: 8).


Listing NGR: TL6422401776

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