4-8, High Street

House, now staff dwellings of a residential institution, located on the south-east side of High Street at Kelvedon. The building dates from the 15th to 16th centuries, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The structure is timber-framed, roughcast rendered with some exposed framing, and roofed with handmade red plain tiles. It comprises a 15th-century 3-bay crosswing aligned till-south-east, which is the remaining element from a former hall house that originally had another crosswing to the north-east facing the street. The hall and left crosswing were largely rebuilt around 1570 to form a short 2-bay middle range and a 2-bay left crosswing of exceptionally wide span. The left crosswing retains a 16th-century inserted stack in the rear of the middle range and the framing of the left wall of the left crosswing, which is exposed externally. The building is 2 storeys with a cellar. 19th-century stacks are positioned in the right side of the right crosswing, to the rear of it, and to the left of the left crosswing. An ancillary building of one bay stands to the rear of the left crosswing, one storey with an attic. A mid-19th-century 2-storey lean-to extension with slate roof is attached to the left of the right crosswing, with an external stack to the rear. A 20th-century flat-roofed extension extends to the rear of the right crosswing.

The street elevation features a full-length jetty, with that of the right crosswing being slightly lower than the remainder. There are 4 splayed bays of late 19th-century sashes of 2-6-2 lights below the jetty. On the first floor are 2 early 19th-century sashes of 16 lights in the left crosswing, one in the right crosswing of 4 + 8 lights, and one small light in the middle range. Two half-glazed doors mark entrances to numbers 4 and 6. Five plain brackets are partly visible below the jetty. 20th-century serpentine bargeboards appear on both gables. The entrance to number 8 is in the left return of the rear ancillary building.

The left return of the left crosswing displays curved tension braces trenched outside the studding. One brace was severed for an inserted ground-floor window, now blocked, and another was severed for a 19th-century casement on the first floor. The rear elevation shows on the first floor one early 19th-century sash of 16 lights and another of 4 + 8 lights. The lean-to extension has on the first floor one original sash of 3 + 6 lights, with crown glass throughout. In the right pitch of the rear ancillary building is a 20th-century casement in a gabled dormer.

Interior

The interior is now divided into several dwellings for staff of Grangewood to the north-east, but retains evidence of an earlier division into 3 houses. The building features jowled posts. The right crosswing contains plain joists of horizontal section, mostly plastered to the soffits, a cambered tiebeam between the front and middle bays, an original studded partition between the middle and rear bays, and a complete crownpost roof with plain crownpost and axial bracing 65mm wide. Some original wattle and daub infill survives in gable walls, and possibly elsewhere. Edge-halved and bridled scarfs are present in wallplates. The soffit of the front tiebeam is covered, but there appears to have been an original unglazed window in the middle, and a late 16th-century inserted window of early glazed type to each side, now blocked. Two 18th/early 19th-century battened doors occupy the first floor. The cellar is constructed of whitewashed bricks, apparently dating to the 16th century.

The left crosswing is structurally one large room at each storey, now divided, with roll-moulded axial and transverse beams (one moulding repaired) with stops carved with stars and 6-petalled flowers, joists plastered to the soffits. The roof is of clasped purlin construction, retaining the gables, principals, purlins and arched wind-bracing, with rafters replaced in softwood. In the middle range is a chamfered beam with lamb's tongue stops, and chamfered joists of horizontal section with lamb's tongue stops. The ground-floor room is lined with 18th-century pine panelling with moulded coving. Original rebated hardwood floorboards are present. The roof is of clasped purlin construction; the timbers are much charred, and the rafters are replaced in softwood.

Historical context

The ingenious and unusual construction represents a major rebuild of around 1570. The position of the main stack indicates that formerly there was an open hall to the north-east of the surviving 15th-century crosswing, and a stack was inserted about the middle of the 16th century in the left bay of it against the rear wall, leaving the cross entry to the left unobstructed. The left crosswing would originally have been the service wing. It was reconstructed as a wider parlour/solar wing to absorb the former cross-entry of the hall, with a shortened middle range. The left wall of this crosswing may have been left undisturbed because it was the party wall of an adjacent house, now missing. The right crosswing became the service end. A rear outhouse reported by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments to have original panelling cannot be identified.