Broad Green Farmhouse

This is a late 16th-century farmhouse, altered in the 18th and 20th centuries, with an ancillary building from the 17th century. The house is timber-framed and plastered, with some exposed timber framing, and has a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It has four bays aligned approximately northeast to southwest, with an axial chimney stack in the second bay from the southwest end, facing northwest. A three-bay ancillary building, of unknown original function, forms a T-plan and is now linked to the main house, with a 19th-century extension to the southeast.

The northwest elevation of the main house shows some exposed timber framing with plaster infill over two storeys. The front has a four-panel door, two 19th-century casement windows, one early 18th-century window with one wrought iron casement and two fixed lights with rectangular leading, and one 19th-century casement window on the first floor, along with two other early 18th-century windows matching the description of the lower one.

The ancillary building is single-storey with attics. Inside the main house are jowled posts, close heavy studding, plain-chamfered axial beams with lamb's tongue stops, and joists plastered to the soffits. The joists have face-halved scarfs bladed at one end and housed at the other. There are grooves for sliding shutters in the girts and wallplates, and two large wood-burning hearths.

The ancillary building’s interior shows evidence that it was originally a single-storey structure, but now has an inserted floor. An axial beam has been re-used, plain-chamfered with step stops, the joists supported on pegged clamps. The two northwest bays are each less than 2 metres long. The corner posts are jowled, while the intermediate posts are not. The internal tiebeams have been severed, their stubs bridled and pegged to cruck blades which rise from the posts and are lap-jointed to the collars of the roof. This unusual construction, representing a late 17th-century alteration to add an upper storey, is rare in Essex. The original purpose of the ancillary building is uncertain, but it was probably agricultural rather than domestic.