Jenkin'S Farmhouse

Jenkin's Farmhouse, on the east side of King's Lane

A timber-framed house of late 14th-century origin, substantially altered and extended during the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, and comprehensively restored from around 1970. The building is plastered and roofed with handmade red plain tiles.

The main structure comprises a 2-bay hall facing west, with a 2-bay crosswing (originally 3 bays) to the right serving as parlour or solar, fitted with an 18th-century internal stack. To the left is an early 16th-century 3-bay crosswing with two external stacks, replacing the original service bay. An 18th-century range extends to the rear of the hall and the right crosswing, parallel with the hall, with an internal stack near its middle. A late 16th-century porch, now surviving as a single storey but originally of two storeys, stands in front of the left end of the hall.

The house rises to two storeys with a cellar and attic space. Windows include one 19th-century 4-light sash on the ground floor, two 20th-century casements, and four 20th-century lights on the first floor; the left gable has two 20th-century lights. A pair of 20th-century double doors opens from the gabled porch.

Internally, the hall contains a blocked original doorway with a hollow-moulded 4-centred head at the right end of the rear wall. A high inserted floor spans the hall on an axial beam with exposed joists of horizontal section, supported on pegged clamps, all chamfered with step stops. An early 19th-century straight stair with wreathed mahogany handrail and stick balusters ascends from the ground floor. The first-floor studs at the right end are heavily smoke-blackened, and wattle and daub infill survives complete with an original round squint—a rare or unique feature. The front wall framing has been covered by 20th-century oak firrings following the original pattern.

The right crosswing features an underbuilt jetty with wide plain brackets preserved in the wall thickness, and a studded partition at its rear, originally internal. The central tiebeam is missing; the jowled posts for it retain offset tenons, documented in C.A. Hewett's English Historic Carpentry (1980). The rear bay was rebuilt in the 18th or 19th century. Window splays are panelled and date to the 18th or early 19th century. The wallplate incorporates an edge-halved and bridled scarf. An upper wall retains early 17th-century painted decoration, now covered by removable paint.

The left crosswing displays a jetty at the front with chamfered and stopped axial and transverse beams. Floor joists of horizontal section are arranged longitudinally in the front bay and transversely in the other two bays, with chamfered and stopped ends cut back diagonally at the corners. Floor jointing employs soffit tenons with diminished haunches. An early inserted stair trap sits at the left side of the rear bay. The letters IP in 17th-century style are branded into a right wallpost. Grooves for sliding shutters remain evident. The crownpost roof features curved axial braces 25mm thick and a chamfered square crownpost. The wallplate and collar-purlin include edge-halved and bridled scarfs. An upper wall retains early 17th-century floral paintings, partly restored. Serpentine wall bracing is trenched into the studs.

The cellar contains a finely made oak ladder stair of exceptional interest. Its dimensions suggest it was originally the access to the upper storey of the right crosswing, indicating a late 14th-century date—a rare survival.

The porch, though now single-storey, is the surviving portion of a former 2-storey structure, jettied on three sides. Dragon beams are chamfered with lamb's tongue stops; the common joists are missing. The upper room was accessed from the upper room of the left crosswing. The side walls retain symmetrically turned balusters.

The timber structure underwent comprehensive restoration between 1970 and 1986 by the owner, R.D. Nixon, employing new oak and high-quality craftsmanship. In some areas the original frame is covered by duplicate firrings.

The farm is documented in a rent roll of 1483 (Essex Record Office D/DB, M.177), a survey of 1564 (D/DQ 28/1), the will of William Baisey dated 1772, and a sale catalogue of the Stisted Hall estate in 1893, at which date it comprised 234 acres.