Sheepcotes

House. Dating from the 17th century, with extensions around 1908, it is constructed of timber framing, plastered walls, and a roof of handmade red plain tiles. The house has two bays aligned northeast-southwest, with an internal axial stack at the northeast end, and a remnant of an earlier building to the northeast. A small, single-story extension is located to the east, and a larger extension extends to the southeast, creating an irregular H-shaped plan. The windows are 20th-century casements. A 20th-century door is situated in the southwest elevation of the extension.

The early fragment shows the jowled post and tiebeam construction of a lower building, dating from the 16th century or earlier, possibly an open hall, which is exposed externally against the northeast gable end of the main building, with a filled mortice for a former wall brace. More of the same truss may be incorporated into the small extension to the east. The main range has chamfered axial beams with lambs' tongue stops and plain joists of vertical section. Two inserted posts are located at the southwest end, appearing to be reused. A large wood-burning hearth, featuring 0.23 meter jambs, has been converted to a cupboard. The owner reported that a winder stair was formerly located northwest of the stack. The upper story is plastered internally, and the roof is a clasped purlin roof, with the ends of the purlins projecting to the northeast.

Historical deeds, belonging to the owner, reveal that the house was formerly owned and occupied by G.F. Beaumont, a historian and author of A History of Coggeshall in Essex, published in 1890. A map from 1731 depicts the main range as one of a row of cottages, with the road then known as New Row (Essex Record Office, D/DU 19/2).