Swan House

House. Dating to the late 14th century, it has undergone alterations in the 17th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The construction is timber-framed, with plaster infill and a roof of handmade red plain tiles. The original configuration included a two-bay hall facing south, with a 19th-century internal stack at its right-hand end. A two-bay parlour/solar crosswing is situated to the left, featuring an 18th-century stack at the rear and a 19th/20th-century extension to the rear.

The ground floor has four 19th/20th-century sash windows of 16 lights each. The first floor has one early 19th-century sash window of 12 lights, and one 19th/20th-century sash of 4+8 lights. A 20th-century glazed door is located in the right return. The crosswing projects slightly forward of the hall, with an underbuilt jetty and a 19th-century re-roofing that aligns with the roofs of numbers 25 and 27 to the left.

The hall exhibits display bracing trenched into the studding at both ends, showing evidence of smoke-blackening. Two heavy bay posts at the right end indicate a previous crosswing of three bays, which was formerly The Swan Inn and has since been demolished. At the left end, peg-holes mark the location of a former ‘high end’ bench, while the original doorway into the parlour is blocked by a 18th-century stack; some studs have been removed to create a new opening. A cambered tiebeam is chamfered with step stops, and part of one arched brace remains. The front wallplate has been replaced, and the rear portion of the hall was demolished. A 17th-century inserted floor includes a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue stops and plain joists of vertical section. The roof was rebuilt in the 19th century, incorporating much re-used timber.

Within the crosswing, most of the front bay’s original joists remain – they are plain, of heavy square section, and jointed to the binding beam with central tenons. All the joists of the rear bay were removed, leaving the severed tenons visible. Grooves indicate the former presence of sliding shutters on the re-sited jetty plate. Curved braces are trenched outside the studding, while a blocked unglazed window in the front bay of the upper storey, and an edge-halved and bridled scarf in the left wallplate are visible from number 27. The hearth has a rounded back and a chamfered mantel beam with lamb's tongue stops. A moulded beam in the rear extension was introduced during a renovation in 1978 by D.H. Lamprell.

The building was formerly part of The Swan Inn, a business established in 1731 (as documented by G.F. Beaumont in A History of Coggeshall in Essex, 1890, pages 195 and 240).