Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 22/07/2019

TL 8619-8719
8/268

KELVEDON
SWAN STREET (south side)
No. 1 (The Old Cottage)

21.12.67

GV
II
Part of house. C15, altered c.1600 and in early C19. Timber framed, plastered with some exposed framing, facade of painted brick in Flemish bond, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. Three bays facing north east with C16 internal axial stack at left end. C19 rear wing forming a T-plan, and single-storey lean-to extensions with slate roofs in both rear angles. Small single-storey lean-to extension with hipped slate roof at right end.

Two storeys. Ground floor, two early C19 sashes of twelve lights. First floor, two early C19 sashes of 3 + 6 lights. Six-panel door, with four panels glazed. All apertures in facade have flat arches of gauged brick. Three truncated octagonal shafts, each with a roll moulding at the base. In the right return one collar of the roof is exposed. In the left return the framing is exposed of the right wall of a former crosswing, of which the remainder is demolished, with jowled posts, central post with mortices for a beam and brace, studding on the upper storey, and an incomplete fireplace below.

The interior comprises two bays and a short bay at the left end, of a house which formerly extended further in both directions, with a partition wall between the two right bays; this has display bracing trenched into the left side of the studs. The whole front was formerly jettied, now underbuilt, with two plain jetty brackets at the right end, and in the jetty plate, mortices for diamond mullions of unusually large section and grooves for sliding shutters.

The transverse beam at the right side of the right bay is chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, without mortices for studding, indicating that the building formerly continued in this direction. This beam is an insertion of c.1600, but the chamfered axial beam scribed into it is part of the original structure, with a solid brace approximately 0.15 metre wide at the left end of it. On the upper storey this bay has a groove for a sliding shutter in the rear wallplate, and two longitudinal ovolo-moulded ceiling beams with lamb's tongue stops, inserted c.1600. The lower posts between the other two bays have been replaced by brick piers. An unusually large chamfered binding beam is supported on the piers, with chamfered axial bridging beams each side with step stops; plain joists of horizontal section are jointed to the bridging beams with central tenons and housed soffits. The structure is slightly angled at the binding beam, so that to the right it forms a parallelogram in plan. Original rebated hardwood floorboards. Jowled posts, retaining two braces to the tiebeams approximately 0.12 metre wide at the front, missing at the rear. The two left trusses were both open originally. Exceptional heights at both storeys.

The stack has a wood-burning hearth on the ground floor, the mantel beam replaced, and on the first floor an inserted hearth of c.1600 with chamfered jambs and depressed arch, stripped of plaster. Ovolo-moulded axial ceiling beams with lamb's tongue stops in both bays, inserted c.1600. Original roof of collar-rafter construction, unsooted. On the ground floor one altered C16 battened door with moulded muntins, heavily nailed, remains; the RCHM reported 3. Deeds from 1787 to 1922 are in the possession of the owner.

RCHM 40.

Listing NGR: TL8651219157

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26622045

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)