Coggeshall Hall Farmhouse

Coggeshall Hall Farmhouse

A house dating to around 1575, with alterations made in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The building is primarily timber-framed and plastered, with some weatherboarding and plum bricks laid in Flemish bond. The roof is covered with handmade red plain tiles.

The main body of the house faces southwest and consists of 4 bays with a long-wall jetty and axial stack. An 18th-century extension of one bay extends to the left. An early 19th-century crosswing of plum brick at the right end creates a T-shaped plan and forms the later entrance elevation. An external stack to the left of the front section is now enclosed by a 19th-century single-storey lean-to extension. A 19th-century single-storey lean-to of painted brick with a slate roof extends to the rear of the main range, with a 20th-century 2-storey extension with flat roof added to its right within the angle of the brick wing. The building is 2 storeys tall with a cellar and attic.

The southwest elevation's ground floor displays 3 tripartite sashes in the main range and, in the brick wing, a late 19th-century splayed bay of sashes. The first floor has one 19th-century casement window, one late 19th-century sash of 3 + 6 lights, 2 tripartite sashes in the main range, and in the brick wing one early 19th-century sash of 12 lights. A single gabled dormer breaks the roofline. A tall concertina stack rises prominently. The jetty's fascia is carved in a grotesque style and is exposed for most of its length, supported by plain brackets. At the left end a short section is underbuilt; at the right end it is concealed by the lean-to extension.

The southeast elevation, facing the later entrance, contains a 3-window range of early 19th-century sashes of 12 lights with plastered surrounds and crown glass. A central 5-panel door with the top 3 panels glazed sits within a portico with paired columns. The roof of this wing is hipped. The main range's rear elevation has scattered windows, including on the first floor 2 19th-century horizontal sashes of 12 lights. The left return of the main range is weatherboarded on the ground floor only; the rear of the 18th-century bay is clad with painted brick on the ground floor only.

Internally, the timber framing features jowled posts and curved tension braces trenched inside heavy studs. To the left of the stack is an unusually long chamfered axial beam with step stops and plain joists of horizontal section. A large wood-burning hearth facing left has been blocked, but a complete bread oven with a wrought iron door survives. To the right of the stack, the chamfered axial beam has a step stop at the left end and a lamb's tongue stop at the right end; the joists are of horizontal section, chamfered with lamb's tongue stops.

The front wall contains 3 original windows of early glazed type, each with one ovolo mullion and 2 diamond saddle bars, now blocked. Similar windows appear in the rear wall as early insertions. A window at the head of the stairs comprises one ovolo mullion and 4 diamond saddle bars; this is a modern alteration with the weathered surface of the ovolo mullion now facing inward. The roof of the main range uses clasped purlin construction with arched wind braces. The 18th-century extension has unjowled posts and a roof without wind bracing. Former oriel windows have been removed.

This house possesses an interesting set of dating features: the combination of step stops with lamb's tongue stops, the combination of original glazed windows at the front with inserted windows of similar type at the rear (indicating the increasing adoption of glazing), and the grotesque carving.

The building sits on the parish boundary between Feering and Kelvedon, with the greater part lying in Feering.