Heigaines

Heigaines is a house located on High Street in Kelvedon, dating from the 16th century or earlier, with extensions made in the 19th century and significant alterations in the 20th century. The building is timber framed, plastered, and has a roof made of handmade red plain tiles. The main section faces southeast and features a 19th-century axial stack near the left end. There are two adjacent 19th-century wings at the rear, one with a truncated external stack on the left and the other with a 20th-century external stack at the end of the right wing.

The house has one storey with attics, featuring two 20th-century casement windows and three additional casements in gabled dormers. The entrance includes a 20th-century door with side-lights. The main range has a half-hipped gambrel roof, while the left rear wing has a gablet hip and the right rear wing has a full hip. All rear windows are 20th-century casements.

Inside, there is a chamfered axial beam supported by an internal stack at the left end, featuring lamb's tongue stops and an introduced post at the right end. The joists are of horizontal section with step stops, joined to the beam with soffit tenons and diminished haunches. It is unclear whether the wall framing, concealed by plaster, indicates an inserted floor from around 1570 in an earlier building or is part of the original construction. The axial stack originally had coal-burning hearths on both sides; the right hearth is now blocked and converted into a recess facing left. The left bay has plain joists of vertical section. The roof was rebuilt as a gambrel in the 18th or 19th century. The rear wings feature thin studding and primary straight bracing, with the left rear wing's joists of vertical section being much disturbed by 20th-century alterations. Documentary evidence from 1581 supports the historical significance of the building.