Horseshoes

Horseshoes is a house located on Cressing Church Road, originally built in the 15th century and altered in the late 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries. It features a timber frame that is plastered and has a roof made of handmade red plain tiles. The main range, which has two bays, faces southwest and includes a late 16th-century stack at the right end against the front wall. To the left is a 15th-century two-bay crosswing that was originally jettied at the front but is now underbuilt. This crosswing has a 19th-century external stack in the left wall and a 19th-century lean-to extension beyond it. There is also a late 17th-century extension to the right of the main range, which includes an end stack, and a lean-to extension at the rear.

The building is two stories high and has a three-window range of 20th-century casements. The entrance features a six-panel door, with the top panels glazed, located in a 20th-century porch that has a hipped roof. The crosswing has unglazed windows in the left wall at both levels; the lower window originally had three diamond mullions, but these have been removed, while the upper window retains one diamond mullion and is blocked. There are mortices in the binding beam indicating a former studded partition, and the plain joists are of horizontal section. The central tiebeam is cambered and supported by two wide arched braces, with a crownpost roof that includes four axial braces, which are unusually straight.

The main range has undergone significant alterations in the late 16th century, though its lower part is of earlier origin. It features a wide wood-burning hearth, with an elaborately moulded floor beam that has been re-used as the mantel beam and is much re-bricked below. An inserted floor consists of a chamfered axial beam and plain joists of vertical section. There is an 18th-century corner cupboard with an arched head against the rear wall. The roof includes two smoke-blackened rafter couples and a cambered tiebeam that has been sawn lengthwise to create two narrower tiebeams; the remainder of the roof is unsooted and constructed with clasped purlins and curved wind-braces. Exposed elm weatherboarding can be seen on the rear wall within the lean-to extension. A small area of originally external plaster with a serpentine inscribed pattern is visible in the right gable of the main range, which is enclosed by the right extension. The building was formerly known as The Horseshoes public house.