Littleacres

TL 73 SW WETHERSFIELD BRICK KILN GREEN (east side)

1/135 Littleacres

GV II*

Wrongly shown on OS map as Brickels House. House. C.1570, altered in C20. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 4 bays facing SE, with axial stack in second bay from left end. C18/C19 lean-to extension at rear, absorbed into C20 wing and lean-to extensions each side. 2 storeys. Ground floor, 2 C20 oriels. First floor, 3 C20 casements. Plain boarded door in gabled porch, C20. Original sprockets below eaves. Under-built jetty with groove for sliding shutters at right end. Chamfered axial and transverse beams with well-cut lamb's tongue stops, early examples of their use. Plain joists of horizontal section. Blocked stair trap in rear left corner. Jowled posts, close studding with curved braces trenched to the inside. Blocked window with shutter groove in rear right corner, probably with mullions still present. Edge-halved and bridled scarfs in wallplates. Crownpost roof with thin axial braces to right of stack, the collar-purlin chamfered with step stops. Clasped purlin roof to left of stack. Large wood-burning hearth of 0.33 metre brickwork facing right, original. Smaller C17 wood-burning hearth of 0.23 metre brickwork facing left with curved back and wrought iron trammel. Original rebated floorboards. The combination of lamb's tongue stops on the beams with step stops in the crownpost roof is of unusual interest, and permits a close dating (J. McCann, The Introduction of the Lamb's Tongue Stop, Historic Buildings in Essex 2, 1985). This house has an unusually complete range of original interior features. RCHM 59.

Listing NGR: TL7358231571