Cradle House

Cradle House, on the east side of Robin's Bridge Road, Coggeshall, is a timber-framed and partly brick-built house of uncertain original purpose, possibly a gatehouse or hunting lodge. It dates from the mid to late 16th century and was altered in the 18th and 20th centuries.

The main building is timber-framed and plastered, with sections of red brick in English bond, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. It stands 2 storeys high with 2 bays facing south-west, featuring a right gable, external stack and stair outshut of red brick, and an external stack at the left end. A 20th-century wing forms a T-plan at the front, with 20th-century flat-roofed single-storey extensions in each angle. The south-west elevation has 3 20th-century casements on the ground floor and 2 on the first floor, with a small light in the gable. A board inscribed 'FTH 1938' appears in the gable. A 20th-century door is set in the right extension. The rear elevation (facing north-east) contains 2 20th-century casements on the ground floor and 4 on the first floor, with 2 20th-century doors under a combined lean-to canopy. The right gable, facing south-east, is crow-stepped on the front slope only.

The most distinctive external feature is a large 16th-century chimney stack standing outside the right gable, with 2 attached hexagonal shafts that are truncated. A stair outshut stands in front of it. The outer elevation of the stack is extended forwards and backwards by fin walls with sloping offsets and roll mouldings. The face displays diaper and geometrical designs executed in flared headers. The stair outshut face contains 2 chamfered rectangular loops with modern sheet glass.

Internally, the timber framing includes jowled posts and cambered tiebeams. The right-end tiebeam and the middle tiebeam each have 2 arched braces set at a shallow angle; the middle tiebeam also bears mortices for studs and a groove for wattle infill, probably indicating an earlier use. The left tiebeam's braces are missing, though mortices for them remain. In the girt of the front wall are 3 diamond mortices of a former unglazed window. Most original studding in the front and rear walls has been removed and replaced with later studding. Two later tiebeams were inserted at half-bay positions, probably in the 17th or 18th century. The axial beams are unchamfered with plain joists of vertical section flush with the soffits, probably an 18th-century alteration.

At the right end is a wood-burning hearth of exceptional width with a moulded mantel beam, and in front of it an arched recess below the stair. The stair opens off the ground-floor room near the front corner and forms a narrow sloping tunnel which re-enters at the first floor. Its lower doorway is blocked and concealed by an 18th- or 19th-century corner cupboard with profiled shelves and plain head, the whole mounted on hinges and dropping back into the doorway. At the left end is a wood-burning hearth with jambs 0.46 metre wide and a replaced mantel beam.

Historical records show the building was depicted on an estate map of 1619 as 'Bochiersgatehouse als Hithertowne field als littel gathouse' (Essex Record Office T/M 195) and appears as Cradle House on a map of 1731 (Essex Record Office D/DU 19/2). The 1842 tithe award of Marks Hall parish describes it as 'Cottage and garden, 2 rods and 23 perches', with the Reverend Philip James Honeywood listed as owner and Osgood Hanbury as occupier (Essex Record Office D/CT 234).