The Lawn House And Railings And Gate To Front

The Lawn House is a complex building dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, with alterations made around 1900. It is located on Kelvedon High Street. The house is primarily timber-framed, with plastered and painted brick facade and rear elevation, and a roof of handmade red plain tiles.

The building has a complicated plan facing northwest, comprising a main 18th-century three-bay section with a central entrance hall and stack behind the left bay. Two adjacent 18th-century wings extend to the rear, while a 17th-century range is set at right angles to the street. A later infill section is on the left of this range, forming a rectangular overall plan. The building has a cellar and attics, with two storeys.

On the ground floor, two square bays have lean-to roofs, one with casement windows and the other with sash windows, dating to around 1900. A late 19th-century sash window is also present, along with a blind aperture at the right end. The first floor features five early 19th-century sash windows of 12 lights, and a tripartite sash of 4-12-4 lights, all with flat arches of gauged brick and crown glass. A six-panel door is centrally positioned within a doorcase featuring panelled jambs, a frieze, and a dentilled pediment. The facade steps back slightly between sections. A hipped roof covers only the main 18th-century block.

The front has early 19th-century cast iron railings on a low wall of gault brick, from a spur wall on the left, curving back to meet the house on the right, with a gate. The gate terminals are decorated with lotus and honeysuckle motifs. A wrought iron arch, with a fleur-de-lys finial, is above a wicket gate to the right of the house.

The rear elevation has five early 19th-century sash windows of 12 lights with crown glass, and one 20th-century replica. There is also a half-glazed rear door with a moulded flat canopy on scrolled brackets.

Inside, an 18th-century staircase has an open well and gallery on two sides, with a wreathed and moulded handrail, closed string, and twist-turned balusters (the balusters were removed for paint stripping and replaced). A 18th/early 19th-century cast iron grate with a vine garland, inner surrounds of green and white marble, and a wooden outer surround incorporating carved rams' heads is in a ground-floor room. A ducted air intake connects to the cellar. Numerous 18th-century internal doors, mainly of six fielded panels on the ground floor and two fielded panels on the first floor, remain, along with some plain battened doors. In the 17th-century wing, one oak post is exposed, along with three chamfered transverse beams with lamb's tongue stops and a wide wood-burning hearth converted for a stove. Ceiling beams elsewhere are panelled or plastered.