Wealdcote

Details

BRENTWOOD

TQ5793 WIGLEY BUSH LANE, South Weald 723-1/16/303 (East side) 21/10/58 Wealdcote (Formerly Listed as: VICARAGE LANE, South Weald (East side) Wealdcote)

GV II

Formerly known as: Wealdcote South Weald Village. House. Early C16, early C17, early C18, C20. Timber-framed, plastered and rendered, brick, peg-tiled roofs. Plan has early C16 long principal range with 2 rear projecting C17 and C18 wings. EXTERIOR: 2 storey and attic. W front elevation has continuous early C16 jetty supported at S end by C18 gable end wall. 4 principal joists project, 2 reduced and 2 complete with brackets and simple facia board with bead. 3 window range, all windows have casements with glazing bars, 2x2 panes, a number of panes of old crown glass survive. Ground floor, S-N, 2 windows with double casements in simple frames. 2 small C20 single casement windows sit in C18 moulded frames reduced in depth. Between these, C18 front door with 6 panels, lower 2 flush, beaded, upper 4 fielded. Door case has moulded architrave. 2 minor jetty joists over doorway suggest this to be an original door site. S elevation, complex of rear ranges, E-W, gable end of jettied range, rebuilt in early C18 in red brick - some burnt headers, gable weather-boarded, central contemporary stack, ground floor, lean-to porch with C20 French window with glazing bars, each leaf 2x5 panes, first floor, C20 2-light casement with glazing bars, 4x2 panes and a blocked window. To W, C18 projecting brick wing, colourwashed, ground floor, simple timber porch with lean-to hipped roof, C20 door, framed and panelled. Behind roof, principal stack, lateral to early C16 block. To W, C17 N rear wing, timber-framed, rendered on ground floor, weatherboarded above. Ground floor, two 2-light casement windows with glazing bars, 4x2 panes, first floor, one 2-light window with glazing bars, 4x3 panes, lateral stack to block, rebuilt in C20, visible above roof apex. To W continuation of the range with C18 smaller unit, brick and weather-board, end gable stack, ground floor, 2 boarded doors and 2 windows with glazing bars, alternating, one 2-light casement 4x2 panes and one single light casement 2x2 panes. First floor, 2 lights, now fixed, with glazing bars, 3x2 panes. W elevation, C16 range has ground-floor casement window with glazng bars, 3x3 panes, first floor has one casement 2x2 panes and one 2-light casement with glazing bars, 4x3 panes. 2 dormer windows with gabled roofs and a 2-light casement window, 4x2 panes - also shaped barge boards. Barge boards of similar design on exposed gable ends of N rear wing. N elevation, C16 range, weatherboarded with shaped barge boards at rear. Ground floor, 3 casement windows with glazing bars, 2x3 panes, first floor, one 2-light and one single light casement window, 4x3 and 2x3 panes respectively. Restored, attic, 3-light, mullioned window in gable. To W C17 wing, rendered and weatherboarded, one 2-light casement window with glazing bars, 4x3 panes, old stack, totally rebuilt in C20 to W smaller block, weatherboarded with two C20 casement windows. INTERIOR: 3 phases, (1), early C16 long jettied range of 4 bays, step stopped chamfers on principal joists, halved and bridled scarfs on wall plates, close studding with very broad internal tension bracing. 3 bays open on ground and first floors, N end bay partitioned off with newel stair to attic in NW corner, triangular sectioned solid treads and original stairway boarding at attic level, shutter rebate under tie-beam for stair window, evidence of associated doorways on ground floor. Frame for N gable end first floor window, centrally set with internal tension braces from window frame down to middle rail. Roof originally had collars at bay intervals, trapped side purlins (now removed and simple collars nailed to each rafter couple). Phase (2), early C17, addition of 2-bayed N rear wing, timber-framed with lamb's tongue chamfer stops. 2 lateral projecting ground floor fireplaces and stacks to rear of phase (1) block and on N side of phase (2) wing, both heavily rebuilt, but shape retained. Secondary partitioning in early block within second bay fron S, probable site of C17 staircase. Phase (3), early C18, construction on stair on site of earlier C17 one, shaped handrail and turned balusters, rebuilding in brick of the S gable wall of the earlier block together with a central stack. Construction of the brick, S, rear wing and also, probably, the low extension to the N wing. The internal plan of both ground and first floors of the C16 jettied block - 3-bayed open rooms on both floors with a single bay divided off at the N end, is not domestic. Comparison of the plan with analogous local examples, and the proximity of the church, suggests that the building was no doubt a court hall. Such a building needs 2 entrances, one for the litigants and one for the judiciary. One original doorway was no doubt on the site of the present front door, leading into the divided-off N bay. The other was most probably on the site of the C18 stairs, which rise in the house, as an earlier staircase would have done, through a doorway from the outside. The addition of the N wing, and 2 stacks may well indicate a shift in use to a house. The rafters over the C17 wing are sooted, especially at the W end, probably indicating an early kitchen which may have had a smoke void for cooking at the W end, subsequently replaced by the lateral stack. (RCHM: Central and SW Essex : Monument 11: 218).

Listing NGR: TQ5709293746

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

373596

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
An Inventory of Essex Central and South West, (1921), 218

End of official list entry

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