Description

KELVEDON HATCH

TQ59NE FROG STREET
723-1/5/432 (North side)
20/02/76 Cow Farmhouse
(Formerly Listed as:
BRENTWOOD
FROG LANE, Doddinghurst
Cow Farmhouse)

II

House. C15, mid-C16 and early C17. Timber-framed, plastered
and colourwashed with brick outshut, peg-tiled roof. L-plan
with 2-storey cross-wing and one and a half storey hall. 2
window range, C19 sashes with glazing bars, 3 windows have 4x4
panes and one under jetty to W has 5x4 panes, all with horns.
Front door at junction of cross-wing and hall, boarded.
Exterior early C17 stack to NW side wall of cross-wing with
triple clustered shafts. Principal stack through roof to E in
front of apex, rebuilt but in narrow bricks at junction with
roof. Rear, N elevation, has C19 windows. Hall, ground floor
has casement of 4 lights with glazing bars, 8x4 panes.
Cross-wing, ground floor, fixed light 3x4 panes. Cross-wing
first floor, single 4-paned fixed light and one casement of 4
panes. A small C18/19 stack rises from the rear wall of the
hall to E.
INTERIOR: 2 bays of medieval hall and 3 bayed cross-wing
jettied at front and projecting at back. Hall has high level
of construction with heavy timbering, tall crown post of
square section with central square section fillets to each
face and broach stop at base but no capital, braces with
flattened perpendicular arcature rising straight off fillets.
Second minor crown post in SE gable wall, similar version but
no side fillets and no lateral braces. Massive studs indicate
site of hall window 2m (6 feet) wide on both sides of the
hall, interrupting the middle rails, rising from about 1.5m
from ground to hall top plate. Over each window site an upper
recess in the top plate with terminal pegs, possible hood or
gable once existed. Both hall top plates moulded with double
hollow chamfers, continuing down prncipal bay posts. High end
cross wall of hall has central post on ground floor with a
pair of display arched braces and bench pegs, singly and in
pairs on each original stud. Way through to cross-wing at rear
must have always been so. Evidence of low end details now
gone. First floor of hall, 2 heavy cambered tie-beams with
hollow chamfers, one arched brace visible. Crown post rises
above hall central tie-beam. No sooting exists in any roof
member. Cross-wing of similar construction and contemporary.
Ceilings plastered over but principal binding joists have
chamfers with lamb's tongue stops. Site of ground-floor window
evident. On both floors inserted ovolo-moulded fireplaces in
pink brick with 4 centred arches of slack profile . Ovolo
mullioned windows on each floor adjacent to stack - ground
floor, 6 lights, 3x2, partly original but restored C20, -
first floor not restored 4 lights (3 mullions) ovolo with
corner cavetto moulding. Cross wing rear bay first floor -
square sectioned ceiling joists, plain mullioned window and
shutter groove on NW wall, partition of original close
studding under tie-beam with original doorway and arched
bracing with scratched carpenter's marks round door frame.
Stair inserted or re-built in NE corner of cross-wing. Present
stair window C19/C20 casement replaces earlier ovolo mullioned
one with intermediate safety bars. In the later C16 the hall
was divided by a floor and a front dormer window with facade
gable lit upper floor. Stack set next to the central truss and
crown post. Tie-beam cut to receive upper fireplace.
Ground-floor fireplace has a timber lintel moulding later cut
back but roll in a hollow remains suggesting stack and floor
C16 rather than C17 in date. Brickwork in English bond.
Evidence at low end of hall obscure. Moulding on hall top
plate continues into end wall suggesting hall truncated. Also
truss in end wall of open arch braced type, probably the cross
entry bay beyond the present SE end of the house. Within the
extant lower bay of the hall one major stud runs through the
construction in the rear wall and may mark the site of a
subsidiary window. The timber-framed building attached to the
NW of the cross-wing is medieval and it has been rebuilt in
medieval times. Phase 1 - external arched bracing, Phase 2
internal arched bracing. A medieval window exists in each long
side, NW one has 4 lights with mullions moulded with double
hollow chamfers (similar to the moulding on the hall top
plate). The building has a stack with brick out-shut to NW
side. It is said to be a bakehouse and it may well date to the
first phase of the house and could be an early kitchen
although no evidence of the original cooking arrangements can
be seen.
(RCHM: Central and SW Essex : Monument 12: 58).

Listing NGR: TQ5746397894

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26502975

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6