Coopers Cottage

BASILDON

717/0/10021 LAINDON COMMON ROAD 28-APR-06 Little Burstead Coopers Cottage

II

A pair of cottages, formerly a Wealden house, late C14 or early C15. Two storey, rectangular plan, timber frame with brick facade, rendered, plain tile roof, left gable half- hipped with gablet.C18 chimney and fireplace. C19 and C20 extensions to the right, left and rear. Late C20/early C21 enlarged and replaced UPVC windows and doors of no special interest.

Frame, complete apart from the front wall frame, three bay Wealden house, with single-bay hall, flanked by single-bay jettied wings, now underbuilt, under single roof. Service rooms and cross passage at left-hand end, high end of single chambers on ground and first floors at the right. Chamfered beams with diagonal cut stops in the floor frames, arched braces in the wall and cross frames. Evidence of the position of the jetty plate is indicated by dovetail jointing at jetty ends and weathered floor joists where they oversailed. Wide arched doorway from cross passage into hall and exposed moulded beam in hall bay.Crown post roof with hip and jack rafters and longitudinal braces on slightly cambered tie beams.

Summary of importance: Wealdens are particularly rare in Essex, there are only about 30 known examples.This building is of special interest as a rare example of a substantially intact late C14 or early C15 Wealden House with a single-bay hall, surviving mostly in its original condition. The plan-from of the building maintains its legibility and the carpentry and timber framing is of high quality.

Surveyed and drawn mid 1990's by Essex County Council Historic Buildings Team.

NGR:566721 192140