Number 148 (Orchard House And Post Office) And Number 150

Orchard House and Post Office (No. 148) and No. 150, High Street, Kelvedon

A timber-framed house, now comprising a shop with dwelling above, dating from the 14th to 16th centuries with substantial alterations in the 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building is mainly plastered with areas of red brick facing, and roofed with handmade red plain tiles.

The building has a complex plan composed of nine distinct sections. The core is a 2-bay hall range facing north-west, with a 19th-century axial stack in the right bay and an external 19th-century stack to the rear of the left bay. To the left extends a 15th or early 16th-century 2-bay service crosswing, which pushes forward and originally had a late 16th-century external stack to its left (now enclosed by the adjoining building at No. 152). An early 16th-century 2-bay extension projects to the rear of this left crosswing, and an early 16th-century long service range runs further back, faced with brick on both sides. To the right of the hall stands a 14th-century 3-bay parlour or solar crosswing also extending forwards, with a 19th-century internal stack at the rear; this is followed by 19th and 20th-century single-storey extensions to the rear, weatherboarded and roofed with corrugated iron, and a further 20th-century lean-to weatherboarded extension beyond. An 18th-century 2-bay wing stands to the right with an 18th-century external stack, followed by a single-storey lean-to rear extension roofed with interlocking concrete tiles. The hall range, left crosswing and its extensions form No. 150; the right crosswing and its extensions form No. 148 (Orchard House and Post Office).

No. 150 displays a large 20th-century 3-light window and plain door in its left crosswing, and a large 20th-century 9-light window in the right return, both set below a continuous fascia with six scrolled brackets, probably representing a conversion from an earlier shop. The hall range contains two mid-19th-century 6-light sash windows on the ground floor, with three similar sashes on the first floor, and a centrally placed 20th-century half-glazed door set within a 19th-century doorcase decorated with diamond motifs on the frieze and topped by a moulded flat canopy.

No. 148 has a 20th-century splayed shop window with a half-glazed door beneath the jetty of the right crosswing, with two plastered-over brackets, and a further 20th-century shopfront in the right extension. The first floor displays two late 19th or early 20th-century 4-light sashes. The roof of the right extension stands approximately 0.8 metre above that of the right crosswing and is hipped to the right.

Internally, the left crosswing features an underbuilt jetty with grooves for sliding shutters, a moulded binding beam, moulded joists of horizontal section arranged longitudinally, a wide wood-burning hearth with a hollow-chamfered depressed arch and moulded right jamb, a cambered tiebeam with one of two braces measuring 0.13 metre wide, and a collar-rafter roof. The 2-bay rear extension has a cambered tiebeam with two 0.10-metre braces and a crownpost roof with exceptionally thin 0.02-metre axial braces. The long service range could not be examined internally but shows an underbuilt jetty to the left, now enclosed by brick facing, and transverse plain joists of horizontal section.

In the left end of the hall range, the studding is exposed with infill removed, showing one moulded 4-centred doorhead with recessed spandrels and the seating for another, with some charring visible. The right end displays exposed display bracing trenched into the studding with mortices for a fixed bench; a blocked parlour doorway with a hollow-chamfered double-ogee head and mortices and groove for a former draught screen appears at the front, with a similar doorway at the rear within a cupboard. The front and rear walls have been raised and the wallplates renewed with no datable features visible.

The right crosswing has a boxed binding beam between the front two bays and an original partition between the middle and rear bays with curved bracing trenched into the studding. The middle and rear bays contain exposed plain joists of heavy horizontal section arranged transversely, and a blocked original stair trap. Part of the right girt has been removed for a 20th-century extension, exposing central tenons bearing carpenter's marks numbered VII to XI. Chamfered heavy braces support the binding beam. The cambered tiebeams feature jowled posts and 0.12-metre arched braces, all chamfered with step stops. The middle bay contains two long splayed and under-squinted scarfs, incomplete in the left wallplate and partly covered by boarding in the right wallplate. The right extension has unjowled posts and a boxed binding beam with joists plastered to the soffits.