Details
INGATESTONE AND FRYERNING
TQ69NE
723-1/7/359 HALL LANE, Ingatestone
29/12/52 (East Side)
Granary 130 metres north-west of Ingatestone Hall
(formerly Listed as:
BRENTWOOD
HALL LANE, Ingatestone
Barn with Dovecote at Ingatestone Hall)
II*
Granary. Late C16. For Sir William Petre. Red brick in a special form of Flemish stretcher bond, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Rectangular plan aligned NE-SW, with original 2-storey porch in middle of SE side.
EXTERIOR: reported by RCHM as of 2 storeys, floor removed since. All the window apertures are original, with chamfered brick jambs and 4-centred arches, mostly blocked internally. The entrance elevation has 2 pairs of windows in each storey, symmetrically arranged. The rear elevation has one pair in each storey, to left of centre. The left gable end has 2 single windows in each storey, symmetrically arranged. The right gable end (now mainly enclosed in a C20 farm building) has one pair of windows in each storey, and altered brickwork indicating the former existence of 2 other pairs, symmetrically arranged. Most of the windows have original wrought-iron grills in various degrees of survival. The porch has an inner doorway, blocked since the RCHM described it, of which only the 4-centred head survives, 1.20m wide; the brickwork of the jambs suggests the former presence of stone quoins. The outer doorway has been rebuilt, and a former window aperture above it blocked. The left gable end has 2 later brick buttresses, asymmetrically arranged, and there is one buttress to the rear elevation near the left end. The left end has two C18/19 iron tie-plates above one buttress, and an apparently early wrought-iron tie-bar high in the gable, not now connected internally; C20 square louvred aperture for an electric fan. Both gables are crow-stepped. The brickwork comprises alternate courses of stretchers, and of alternate stretchers and headers, with few aberrations, 4 courses giving a rise of 0.31m; the bricks are mostly 0.26m long x 0.12m wide x 0.06m deep. The bond is identical with that of Woodham Walter parish church, Essex, firmly dated to 1563 on documentary and inscription evidence; the bricks there are similar in length and width but shallower, 4 courses giving a rise of 0.28m.
INTERIOR: the granary was entirely filled with grain bins c1959, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle; where visible the bond is the same inside as outside. A small access door was made at the right end at the same time, from the abutting C20 building. Edge-halved and bridled scarfs in both wallplates. The roof is almost complete and original, in 5 Bays, of clasped purlin construction, with 3 vertical struts below each collar, near-straight wind-braces, all rafters of horizontal section, jointed and pegged at the apexes, all of oak of high quality, in excellent order; one strut has been removed to clear the electric fan. The porch retains the beams and trimmed trap of an original high floor, and the original coupled rafter roof. The lean-tos illustrated by the RCHM have been removed. There are minor repairs to the brickwork.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this building has been described by the RCHM and in the 1976 list as a barn, but the absence of any doorway wider than 1.20m indicates that it has never been accessible to waggons; nor could it have been used for threshing. The size is not impossible for a large manorial dovecote, but there is no evidence of original pigeon ports or nesting boxes. The division into 2 storeys, the barred windows, and the unusual entrance porch, indicate that it can only have been a granary originally. The absence of windows to rear right implies the former presence of another building in this position, demolished since the granary was built. A timber-framed barn to NE has been demolished since the RCHM illustration. This granary is of exceptional size and quality, perhaps the finest in the country, and merits special care and conservation.
Listing NGR: TQ6530298626
