Marchants

A late 16th-century cottage, altered in the early 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The cottage is timber framed and plastered, with a roof partially thatched and partially of handmade red clay tiles. It originally comprised two bays facing southeast, with an external stack at the right end and a single-storey lean-to extension to the rear. An 18th-century two-bay extension, formerly another cottage, was added to the left, and has a tiled roof with an axial stack at the junction and an external stack at the left end. The original section is one storey with attics. The ground floor has two 19th-century casement windows, three 20th-century casement windows, and a 20th-century bow window. The first floor has five 19th-century casement windows in gabled dormers. There is a plain boarded door and a 20th-century door in a lean-to porch. The original build features jowled posts, straight braces trenched inside the studs, and a clasped purlin roof with arched wind-bracing. An early 17th-century floor includes a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue stops, lap-dovetailed to the posts, with plain joists of vertical section jointed to it with soffit tenons with diminished haunches. The rear central post has been severed below the joint and moved inwards. The left extension has unjowled posts and primary straight bracing. The central stack has been much altered. A messuage called Marchants, with one acre, is mentioned in a rental of the manor of Ringers in 1761 (Essex Record Office, D/DRa T.59).