Conservative Club

TL 8422-8522 COGGESHALL CHURCH STREET (south-east side)

9/62 No. 32/32A 31.10.66 (Conservative Club)

GV II

House and brewery, now club and offices. Late C17, altered in late C19. Timber framed, plastered, weatherboarded, red and yellow brick, roofed with concrete tiles, handmade red plain tiles and slates. Main range facing NW with internal stack at each end, 3 storeys and cellar, and full-length catslide to rear, late C17. External stack to rear left enclosed by late C19 single- storey polygonal extension of red and yellow brick with slate roof. Long range of 2-storey industrial buildings to rear right, weatherboarded with handmade tiles with C20 single-storey extensions and C19 external stack to left, and garage at end, roofed with corrugated asbestos. To left of main range, vehicle way through with room over. The main range has been extensively altered in the late C19 in the style of the late C17. Ground floor, 2 splayed bays of casements. First floor, 3 splayed oriels of casements. Second floor, 3 casements. Full-length jetties at first and second storeys with billet-moulded bressumers and carved brackets. The ground floor is faced mainly with red brick in Flemish bond, some exposed imitation framing and C19 brick nogging; plastered above. Central recessed 9-panel door with sidelights, 7 small round overlights, 2 carved brackets aligned with bressumer. Roofed with concrete tiles. 2 carved brackets in vehicle way, and C19 casement over. The RCHM described the carved bressumers and brackets as original, but Coggeshall was a centre of the wood-carving trade in the late C19, and most of this appears to be C19 work, possibly a copy of the original. Yellow brick in Flemish bond on both sides of vehicle way. The room over the vehicle way is fully plastered, but from no. 36 (item 9/63, q.v.) C14 structure is visible, the oldest part of the property. In the main range the chamfered transverse beams above ground and first floor are original. The chamfered axial beam over the entrance hall, and brackets to it, are C19; the chamfered axial beam over the first floor is original where exposed. Most of the timber frame is concealed by modern finishes. The tiebeams are unchamfered but handsawn. Late C19 stair from ground floor to attic, with carved newels, pierced balusters and turned pendants. On the upper storey of the left elevation of the rear wing is an C18/early C19 horizontal sash of 15+15 lights, with much handmade glass. The brewery was formerly that of John Beard (J.S. Gardner (ed.), Coggeshall, Essex, 1951, 35). RCHM 18.

Listing NGR: TL8515222687