Rainbirds

Rainbirds is a house located in Hatfield Peverel, dating from the late 16th century and 18th century, with alterations made in the 20th century. The building is timber framed, roughcast rendered, and features some weatherboarding, with a roof made of handmade red clay tiles. The early 18th-century section has two bays and faces southeast, with an internal stack at the rear, and a two-storey lean-to extension from the 19th century at the back. The late 16th-century section to the right forms a T-plan and has a 20th-century stack at the junction, replacing an earlier stack from the 16th or 17th century. The house is two storeys high with an attic, featuring three 20th-century casements on the ground floor, four on the first floor, and one in the attic gable. There is a door at the front of the 20th-century lean-to porch.

Notable features include original carved scrolled brackets on the attic gable and shaped sprockets beneath the eaves. However, the carved bressumer, bargeboards, pendant, and diagonal shafts noted by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments are missing. Inside, the crosswing has close studding, an original studded partition between the middle and rear bays, and a blocked window of early glazed type in the right wall with two ovolo mullions. There are also two similar blocked windows at the front, each with one ovolo mullion. The roof structure includes a butt-purlin roof in the front bay and a clasped purlin roof in the remainder, along with a blocked dormer to the right. In the 18th-century range, there is a chamfered beam with lamb's tongue stops.