Royal Oak

TL 8422-8522 COGGESHALL STONEHAM STREET (east side)

9/198 No. 38 (Royal Oak) 31.10.66 (formerly listed as no. 38 (Royal Oak Cottage))

GV II*

House. Early C17, altered in C19. Timber framed, plastered and weatherboarded, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. 4 bays facing SW, with stack in rear part of second bay from left end, emerging at the ridge. C18/19 internal stack at right end, truncated below roof. 2-storey porch in front of lobby-entrance in front of main stack. C19 single-storey wing to rear right, of red brick and weatherboarding, roofed with red clay pantiles, and C20 stack to right of it. 2 storeys, cellar and attics. Ground floor, 2 early C19 sashes of 16 lights with crown glass; one to right of the porch has 'Royal Oak' inscribed twice on the inside of the glass; and one C20 similar sash. First floor, 3 early C19 sashes of 16 lights and one C19 horizontal sash of 12+12 lights, all with crown glass; one small fixed light with diamond leading. Simple moulded eaves cornice. Above the porch a gable over the stair has one C19 cast iron casement of 6 lights. C19 door with 2 lights in original porch, jettied to front and both sides, with C19 scrolled brackets. The front and rear elevations are plastered, both gable ends weatherboarded. Square chimney with corner pilasters. Unjowled posts, heavy studding with primary straight bracing, face-halved and bladed scarfs in both wallplates. Moulded binding beams to each side of the chimney bay, plain on the sides facing it, and moulded axial bridging beams in 3 bays; plain joists of vertical section. Large wood-burning hearth facing to left with moulded mantel beam, jambs and rear surface rebuilt with C20 bricks. Large wood-burning hearth facing to right with roll-moulded jambs and depressed arch, and rounded rear splays. Original stair in the lobby-entrance from ground to attic, with small open well, moulded handrails, inserted stick balusters and ball finials, and 2 carved pendants on the first floor; 3 newels in attic cut off. On the first floor 2 wide wood-burning hearths with chamfered jambs and depressed arches. Moulded bridging beams in the bays each side of the chimney bay, chamfered bridging beam with lamb's tongue stops in right bay; plain joists of vertical section. C17 moulded and panelled internal doors. Clasped purlin roof with arched collars and straight intermediate collars. This house has retained an exceptional number of original features, and structurally is unaltered. (Described and illustrated in C.A. Hewett, Some East Anglian Prototypes for Early Timber Houses in America, Post-Medieval Archaeology 3, 1969, 104-5, 107, 111, but wrongly identified as no. 43, Stoneham Street, with wrong grid reference). RCHM 37

Listing NGR: TL8495422787