The Dolphin Public House

The Dolphin Public House is a building that was originally a house, dating from the mid-16th century and altered in the 18th century. It features a timber frame that is plastered and has a roof made of handmade red plain tiles. The structure consists of a single range facing southeast, comprising one long bay and one short bay at each end. There is a 19th-century internal stack against the front wall of the long bay, and a 17th or 18th-century one-bay extension to the left, which has an external stack at the end. The building is one storey high with attics and includes a single-storey lean-to extension with a slate roof at the rear, along with a 20th-century flat-roofed single-storey extension beyond.

The building has three 20th-century sashes, two 19th-century sashes, and four 20th-century sashes in dormers with slate roofs. There is also a 20th-century door. The roof is gambrel and half-hipped at the right end. Inside, there is a chamfered axial beam with step stops in each bay, and plain joists of horizontal section that are jointed to it with soffit tenons featuring diminished haunches. A trimmed stair trap, which is blocked, is located in the rear of the right bay. The former partition between this bay and the long bay has been removed, along with the rear half of the beam. Most of the studding in the rear wall has been taken out for the bar and for modern openings. The left extension has plain joists arranged longitudinally, supported on a pegged clamp, along with some modern joists. The frame of the building is illustrated in C.A. Hewett's "The Development of Carpentry, 1200-1700, an Essex Study," published in 1969, where it is incorrectly attributed to the parish of Bradwell-juxta-Coggeshall. Hewett dated the frame to around 1565, but the step stops suggest that this is the latest possible date.