Old Timbers

TL 73 SW WETHERSFIELD LOWER GREEN ROAD (east side)

1/190 Old Timbers

GV II

House. C16 or earlier, altered in C20. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2-bay hall facing SE with inserted stack in left bay against rear wall, and parlour/solar bay to right. To left, 2-bay crosswing, c.1570, with axial stack at rear, extended to rear by one bay. Single-storey crosswing to right of main range, 1982. Hall range of one storey with attics, left crosswing of 2 storeys. Ground floor, 4 C20 casements. First floor, 2 more, of which one is in a gabled dormer. C20 door at front of C20 porch. The hall range is much altered, not clearly datable but probably early Cl6. It has jowled posts, heavy studding, and a blocked plain doorway from the hall to the parlour. The hall has a late C16 inserted floor comprising a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops and plain joists of horizontal section supported on pegged clamps. The rafters are trenched for high collars, whether for a crownpost roof or simple collar-rafter roof. Smoke-blackening survives at the left end, on the present staircase. The left crosswing has jowled posts, an unglazed window with 2 diamond mullions in the right side, a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops, chamfered joists of horizontal section with lamb's tongue stops, an edge-halved and bridled scarf in the left wallplate, and a clasped purlin roof with high collars and arched wind-bracing. This combination of features makes a close dating of 1565-1580 possible (J. McCann, The Introduction of the Lamb's Tongue Stop, Historic Buildings in Essex 2, 1985).

Listing NGR: TL7377331504