Oak Cottage

Details

TL 0100
11/115

FLAUNDEN,
FLAUNDEN (South side),
No.117 (Oak Cottage)

(Formerly listed as No. 22 (Oak Cottage))

21.6.67

GV II*

House. Late C15 open hall house, mid/late C16 E crosswing, early C17
inserted floor in hall, eaves raised and wooden chimney built in E
cross-passage. Late C17 hall changed to a kitchen with W end divided for
service rooms and crosswing divided with separate fireplaces into
rebuilt chimney in old cross-passage, in C18 part of W room became a
parlour with large external chimney at W ('1747' cut in brick), hipped
front of crosswing created by cutting back jetty and gable over and
house roughcast, in C19 house subdivided, early C20 roughcast removed
and planks added to simulate in the front of the crosswing the timbers
marking the raising of the eaves of the hall. Later C20 SW rear wing and
conversion to one house. Timber frame exposed with roughcast infill.
Close studding to ground floor of E crosswing and some red brick infill
to rest of front. Steep old red tiled roof, hipped with gablet at W,
hipped at E. Large internal chimney at junction of wings a third from E
end. A tall 2-storeys L-plan house facing N, set back from road, with
later low SW rear gabled extension. Central chimney lobby-entry plan
results from conversion of open hall and storeyed crosswing by inserting
floor in hall and chimney in cross-passage. 3 windows N front. Flush
leaded casement windows. Door into lobby by chimney. Wide panel timber
framing to hall range with wide timbers and original curved tension
braces at NW corner, others probably renewed. Short close-spaced
vertical studs above old wallplate indicate raising of eaves. C18 fire
insurance plate, 'PROTECTOR' with a scene of firefighting. Exposed frame
of W gable has large panels, 2 collars, and massive corner post with
tension brace. Interior has timber frame exposed. Former open hall 30ft
x 19½ft roofed in 2 bays and separate narrow bay for cross-passage. Open
truss has continuous hollow chamfers to posts, heavy curved braces, and
cambered tie-beams. 2 butt purlins and curved wind braces. Unusually
rich effect from moulded wallplate and other principal members. Queen
struts moulded with knee-braces to cambered collar and sunk spandrels.
Smoke blackened rafters but no evidence for louvre to ridge. There
possibly were screens to the entry doors since the truss at E end of
hall is moulded only on W side but wallplates and mid height rail extend
for width of cross-passage before wall of later E crosswing. RCHM
(Typescript) suggests this was originally a long house with detached
kitchen and service rooms but a byre for cattle on the site of the later
E crosswing. Of this house it has been said that 'It probably has the
finest moulded beams of any domestic building in Hertfordshire'
(Medieval Archaeology XIII(1969)275). 2-bays E crosswing has
clasped-purlin roof, chamfered jowled posts, cambered tie-beams, wattle
and daub partition, and both squint-butted and straight-butted scarf
joints. (Pevsner(1977)143: RCHM Typescript).


Listing NGR: TL0161600839

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

157642

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 143
Medieval Archaeology in Medieval Archaeology, Vol. 13, (1969), 275

End of official list entry

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