Whitehouse Farmhouse

Whitehouse Farmhouse is a house dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, situated in Navestock, near Brentwood. It is timber-framed and now clad in 20th-century weatherboarding, with a half-hipped peg-tiled roof. The windows are 20th-century wooden casements with small panes. A central stack rises behind the apex of the roof, and a gabled porch with a glazed door has been added in the 20th century. The house has a rectangular plan, incorporating a two-bay cross-wing to the west. Soot marks indicate that the house originally adjoined an open hall to the east side, which was replaced in the 17th century by a two-bay block. This new block features exposed ceiling joists flanking a central chimney bay containing the stack. Inside, the timber frame includes cambered tie-beams, a clasped side purlin, and a queen post roof. An upper chamber contains a fireplace with a depressed four-centred arch. There's extensive reuse of original timber, notably a moulded bressumer from the cross-wing which has been reversed.