Appletrees

TL 74 SW RIDGEWELL CHAPEL ROAD 3/38 Appletrees (formerly listed 24/9/76 under Chapel Green) GV II*

Hall house, late C14, altered in C16 and C20. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2-bay hall aligned approximately NW-SE with late C16 inserted chimney stack in SE bay, and storeyed bays at each end. C18 external chimney stack at NW end. Extension to SW forming a T-plan, 1978. Single storey with attics. NE elevation, C20 door, 4 C20 casement windows, 3 more in swept dormers. Roof half-hipped at both ends. The interior has jowled posts, heavy studding, steeply cranked central tiebeam with deep arched braces, cross-quadrate crownpost with 4-way rising braces of which 3 are still present, original roof timbers, heavily smoke-blackened above the hall. Both end walls are of interrupted tiebeam construction with evidence of unglazed windows at both levels. Some original diamond mullions are in situ. Both wallplates have edge-halved and bridled scarfs. The floor inserted in the hall in the late C16 has a plain-chamfered axial beam and plain-chamfered joists of horizontal section. The building is of special interest in that there is a clear structural break between the storeyed NW bay and the remainder, although they are of similar construction and date, indicating a phased building programme from the outset. Appletrees is also unusual in never having had a cross-entry - the evidence of doorways on opposite sides indicates that they were not in line. M.C. Wadhams: Restoration case-study, Appletrees, a small C14 house in North Essex, Period Home, April/May 1981, pp. 5-9.

Listing NGR: TL7363041056