Description

ROCHFORD SOUTH STREET TQ 8790 SE (east side) 16/248 No. 17 27.7.59 GV II* Hall house with right and left crosswings. Circa 1300 with C15/C16 replacement right (south) crosswing and other alterations and additions. Timber framed and plastered. Red plain tiled roofs. Red brick chimney stack to left crosswing with 4 attached diagonal shafts. Off centre right stack to hall and rear stack to right crosswing. 2 storey crosswings, one storey hall, now with a gabled dormer with 3 leaded casements. H plan. The gabled crosswings are jettied with end brackets. 1:1:1 window range. Small paned vertically sliding sashes to first floor left and ground floor right, C19 2 light casement with centre transom to first floor right. Small paned angled bay ground floor right central C19 shop bay of 5 lights with centre transoms and segmental heads. C19 doors to right and left of hall that to left with 2 vertical lights, to right vertically boarded. Interior 2 bay open hall (now 6.9 metres long). Cambered and arched braced tie beam. 2 armed crown post roof. Originally the front and rear walls were braced in herringbone pattern between hall window and cross passage doorways. Original doorhead survives to rear. Originally there were opposing windows, each with central square post, 2 diamond mullions either side and a transom. Simple crown posts with braces carried down the shafts as pilasters with broach stops. Roof timbers were heavily sooted. Towards the south end are 2 original additional collars set approx. 2 feet below the common collars, use unknown. Radiocarbon dating from hall and north crosswing gave results 610+70 and 670+70, the resulting calibrated age AD calculated on the mean was 1350±85 (HAR 5717; HAR 5718; 1984) indicating a date of circa 1300 as not unlikely. Nothing survives of the original service end of the hall. The present 4 bay replacement is difficult to date but appears C15/C16. The 3 bay north crosswing is of similar date to the hall, but may be slightly later. An extremely fine and imposing red brick chimney stack was inserted into the hall probably between 1480 and 1530. Mantel beam radiocarbon dating gave the calibrated age AD of 1440±80. The mantel beam is cambered, there are 3 decorative brick niches over with corbelled trefoiled heads, these flanked by a lower niche on each side with a plain arched head. A floor was inserted late C16 early C17 (now removed). The north (left) crosswing is of structure similar to the hall and originally multi-braced to the road. There is a doorhead in the north wall of the central bay. The tie beams are flatter than in the hall, the westernmost was arch braced, front wall, tie beam was originally moulded externally and cambered. Splayed top plate scarfs with undersquinted abuttments and face pegs. Inserted chimney stack with flat stop chamfered mantel beam, possibly contemporary with the Hall chimney stack. There were indications of wall paintings, too fragmentary to retain, but said to be a floral motif. A staircase was inserted at a later date. The south crosswing has a simple crown post roof and halved and bridled top plate scarves. Information from E.C.C. ESB/DAP/LA/A/606/64. RCHM 6.

Listing NGR: TQ8768290475

External Links

• Wikidata Q17532439

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Recommended Books

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair