Place House

Place House is a timber-framed house on the south-east side of Great Bardfield High Street, originating in the late 14th or early 15th century and substantially altered in the 16th and 18th centuries. It is roofed with handmade red clay tiles and features a complex plan that reflects its development over five distinct building phases.

The house comprises six interconnected elements: a three-bay hall range facing north-west; a two-bay cross-wing to the right, originally serving as parlour and solar; a mid-16th-century two-storey porch at the left end of the hall range, originally jettied on three sides but later underbuilt; a mid-16th-century block of two parallel ranges aligned with the street to the left, with two 18th-century external stacks on the left return wall; a 16th-century three-bay service wing extending to the rear with a 19th-century external stack; and an 18th-century two-storey extension in the rear angle.

The north-west elevation is two storeys. The ground floor has a splayed bay with late 19th-century sashes of two to four to two lights, two 19th-century sashes of six lights each, and one of ten lights. The first floor retains two 18th-century sashes of twelve lights with crown glass and two mid-19th-century sashes of six lights. A half-glazed door in an 18th-century doorcase features two Roman Doric engaged columns, a panelled architrave with a carved lion's head, and an embellished cornice.

The left return wall is jettied as far as the second stack and displays a moulded bressumer with two plain brackets. The corner post is richly carved with floral decoration and bears the inscription 'W.B. Mense Aprilis A. Dni. 1564' in high relief, relating to William Bendlowes, the 16th-century serjeant-at-law. The lower storey of this wall is close-studded with original brick nogging arranged in opposed triangles. Beyond the second stack stands an early 19th-century bow window of three sashes, followed by two 17th or 18th-century two-light windows with wrought iron casements and early glass with rectangular leading. The right return wall of the porch is faced with brick, plastered, and pierced at first-floor level by a mid-16th-century window of three round-headed lights with chamfered frames, early glass, and diamond leading. An 18th-century wrought iron lantern bracket with twisted stem adorns the left corner.

Internally, the right cross-wing retains jowled posts and short arched braces of wide section to the cambered tiebeam, with a central octagonal crownpost featuring broach stops. The upper roof structure is concealed by an inserted ceiling, though the original roof is likely complete. The hall range is wholly plastered internally, with the axial beam of the inserted floor boxed in. A doorway at the south corner is rebated for the original door into the parlour, with a mortice for an associated draught screen. The two-storey porch contains two dragon beams with plain stops and exposed plain joists of horizontal section. An arched recess in the right wall at ground floor level may have originally housed an inserted hearth or served as a recessed cupboard.

To the left, the jetty has been incorporated into the floor structure of the wing. An axial beam is chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, and a dragon beam is morticed and chamfered with step stops. Posts are chamfered with step stops. The upper room is lined with early 17th-century oak panelling. The twin roofs employ clasped purlin construction with arched wind bracing. The rear service wing features jowled posts, arched braces to the tiebeams, and a straight stair of solid treads.

The house's development can be traced through five phases: the original late 14th or early 15th-century half-H plan hall house with parlour-solar wing to the south-west and a service wing to the north-east; the mid-16th-century insertion of a chimney stack and floor in the hall and addition of the two-storey porch; 1564, when the original service cross-wing was demolished and replaced by the present north-east wing, becoming the new reception end while the original parlour-solar reverted to inferior use; the construction soon after of the present service wing along the farmyard side; and 18th-century alterations including underbuilding of the front jetty and the addition of extra rooms at each floor in the rear angle.

Place House retains an exceptionally rich collection of early structural features. Of particular historical significance are the varied chamfer stops employed, which provide firmly dated evidence for the introduction of the lamb's tongue stop in Essex.