Timbers

TL 7229 6/128 21.12.67

WETHERSFIELD BRAINTREE ROAD (east side) Timbers (formerly listed as "Timbers", Cherry Gardens)

GV II

House. Late C16, altered in C20. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 3 bays facing SW with central stack, c.1590, extended to left by one bay shortly afterwards. 2-bay rear extension, c.1600, with C20 external stack at end. Single-storey lean-to extension in right rear angle. 2 storeys. 4-window range of C20 casements. C20 door in lean-to porch, C20. Date 'Circa 1575' in modern plaster on front. 4 linked octagonal shafts, shortened and upper parts rebuilt in C20. The right return wall has a jetty with ovolo-moulded bressumer. The interior has jowled posts, and some exposed studding with straight braces trenched to the inside. 2 large wood-burning hearths, the left hearth with a C17 cast iron fireback, the right hearth with an early C17 depressed arch of plastered brick with C20 grate. In the left extension there are longitudinal joists of horizontal section. The 2 main ground floor rooms have chamfered transverse beams, one with lamb's tongue stops and plain joists of horizontal section. Both of these beams have been scarfed at a later date near the front wall, the purpose of which is not apparent. Early C19 brick floors in all ground floor rooms, some original floorboards above. Both roofs of clasped purlin construction. Photographs in the possession of the owner show that there are 2 windows of early glazed type above the jetty, each with one mullion and 2 saddle bars, now plastered in on both sides. Beside the left ground floor hearth there is a curved draught screen, of C17 construction, with 3 D-section ledges of matched curvature and rebated boards, a rare and valuable survival, later raised to ceiling level. RCHM 34.

Listing NGR: TL7210229943