Riverside Cottage

Riverside Cottage is a cottage dating from the early 17th century, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is timber framed and plastered, with a slate roof. The building is a single range facing east and features an axial stack at the left end, which was originally external but is now internal, along with a 19th or 20th-century stack at the rear right. The cottage has two storeys and includes a 20th-century single-storey lean-to extension with a slate roof that runs along the full length of the rear and projects to the right, as well as a 20th-century flat-roofed extension to the left.

The front has a two-window range of 20th-century casements with rectangular leading, and there is a plain boarded door with a 20th-century gabled and tiled canopy supported by brackets. Originally, this was a single-storey cottage, but the walls have been raised by approximately 1.40 metres and the roof has been rebuilt to a slate pitch. Inside, there is a chamfered axial beam with run-out stops in the left bay, while the right bay is boxed in. One original roof truss is preserved in the intermediate partition. The cottage features a large wood-burning hearth with 0.33 metre jambs and a seat in each inglenook, constructed from 16th and 17th-century bricks. In 1980, a child's shoe dating to around 1700, along with items of children's clothing and clay pipes, were discovered in this stack; these items are now in Colchester Museum and in the possession of the owner. The cottage is shown as part of a line of buildings on a map from 1639 held at the Essex Record Office.