Bell House

Bell House is a house dating from the early 17th century, incorporating a portion of a 15th-century crosswing, and altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is timber-framed, with a plaster facade of red brick in Flemish bond, and has a roof of handmade red plain tiles. The main range has four bays facing northwest, with an early 17th-century internal stack at the left end, positioned in front of the axis. To the right is an 18th-century bay, with an axial stack at the junction. A 15th-century crosswing is located to the rear of the right end. A rear stair tower, from the early 17th century, is positioned behind the second bay from the left, and is enclosed by a late 19th-century lean-to extension. A single-storey wing from the 18th or 19th century extends to the rear of the right end, with an end stack, and a 19th-century extension beyond. The house has two storeys, a cellar, and attics. On the ground floor are two early 19th-century tripartite sashes with 4-12-4 lights, two early 19th-century sashes of 12 lights, and one 20th-century casement. The first floor has four 18th-century sashes of 12 lights. All windows are set within flat arches of gauged brick and contain much crown glass. A 20th-century casement is located in a lean-to dormer. The off-centre front door is five-panelled, with the top panel glazed, and features plaster pilasters and a moulded pediment. There is a plain plaster band at the base of the plain parapet, which has stone coping. The left stack has an ovolo-moulded cornice, and the shaft has been rebuilt. The left ground-floor room is lined with 18th-century fielded pine panelling, including a recessed cupboard with a semi-circular head, a 20th-century grate within a 19th-century surround, and boxed axial beams. The entrance hall features a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops, a bolection-moulded panelled dado, and a late 18th-century staircase with scrolled tread-ends, with two turned balusters to each tread, a wreathed handrail, and a matching gallery on the first floor. The room to the right has a 19th-century eared fireplace, a plain panelled dado, and boxed axial beams. A half-glazed door, with four panes of crown glass and two fielded panels, is located to the right end room and dates to the 18th century. The left upper room is lined with 18th-century fielded pine panelling; the recess behind the stack has a semi-elliptical arch with a panelled soffit and fluted pilasters. In the stair tower, wattle and daub infill is exposed in the upper left wall. The attics have original framed floors with tiebeams and axial beams projecting above the floorboards and an original clasped purlin roof. In the rear right wing, an arched brace 0.07 metres wide is visible to a cambered tiebeam; other parts of the original frame may be present within the plaster. The house is named after The Bell Inn, which formerly stood on the same site (as recorded by B.L. Kentish in ‘Kelvedon and its Antiquities’, 1974, pages 44-45).