18 And 20, Stoneham Street

TL 8422-8522 COGGESHALL STONEHAM STREET (east side)

9/195 Nos. 18 and 20 31.10.66

GV II

Building of uncertain purpose, possibly a public building, now a house. C14 or early C15, altered in C19. Timber framed, plastered and weatherboarded, with some red brick in English bond, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. 4 bays with gable end to street, C19 internal stack at left front bay, C18 axial stack in third bay; range of C19 ancillary buildings to rear. 2 storeys and cellar. Ground floor, one C18 oriel of 5-20-5 lights on one twisted wrought iron stay, below end jetty on 2 plain brackets. First floor, one early C19 sash of 16 lights. Front elevation plastered, long right elevation weatherboarded, with C19 and C20 casements, 2 half-glazed doors, and one 4-panel door; the middle and rear doors have simple canopies on profiled brackets. Diamond mortices below jetty. The ground floor was originally partitioned between the second and third bays, and the third and fourth, the latter studding now missing. Chamfered binding beams with step stops; plain joists of horizontal section jointed to them with unrefined central tenons. The joists in the rear 2 bays are straighter and of higher quality than those in the front bays. Blocked stair trap at right of third bay, immediately adjacent to blocked large doorway, 1.37 metres wide, rising through 1 1/2 storeys, with (incomplete) cambered head with one of 2 arched braces below. Early C19 plain straight stair with stick balusters. On the first floor the only original partition is between the third and fourth bays; arched braces in the open trusses. Some indications of a former oriel at the front. Paired display braces trenched outside studding in front gable. Blocked first-floor windows at each side near front, one blocked by the construction of no. 22, to the north, and retaining its 2 diamond mullions (exposed in no. 22, item 9/196, q.v.). Large blocked aperture in left wall of second bay, possibly a window. Original wattle and daub infill in left wall of third bay. Crownpost roof, not smoke-blackened. The lower part of the rear wall, originally studded, is infilled with C16 bricks in English bond. The cellar below the front bay is an C18 or early C19 construction, using contemporary bricks in the rear cross-wall and re-used earlier bricks elsewhere. No evidence or any heating earlier than the C18 stack. The original use of this building is problematical, but it may have been a court hall, or connected with trade. It is sited at the N end of the market. RCHM 40.

Listing NGR: TL8499822695