Brook Cottage

Brook Cottage, Green Street, Ingatestone and Fryerning

A house of early 17th-century date, timber-framed and plastered with a weatherboarded dado, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. The building was damaged by fire in 1938 and underwent major renovation and extension around 1984.

The main range faces south-west in a 4-bay configuration with an axial stack positioned in the second bay from the right, forming a lobby-entrance. An 18th-century external stack stands at the left end, followed by a 20th-century single-storey extension. Extensive 20th-century additions run along the full length of the rear, comprising a rear wing behind each end bay, a flat-roofed 2-storey range connecting them, and a further wing behind the 20th-century extension, all probably dating to around 1984. The building is 2 storeys tall. The main elevation contains a 3-window range of 20th-century casements with a 20th-century door in its original position. The principal stack displays grouped diagonal shafts; all other windows are 20th-century casements.

The ground-floor room to the left of the stack retains significant 17th-century features: exposed primary straight bracing and heavy studding, a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops, plain joists of vertical section, and a wide wood-burning hearth with 0.33-metre jambs and a chamfered mantel beam with lamb's tongue stops. The room above has a similar ceiling and a shallow hearth with rear splays; the chamfered mantel beam with lamb's tongue stops has been inserted. The left ground-floor room contains a chamfered transverse beam, longitudinal plain joists of vertical section, and a 15th-century wood-burning hearth. The room above opens to just above the arched collars of the clasped purlin roof. The transverse tie-beam has been severed, leaving a stub in situ on the front wallplate, finished to an ovolo profile around 1984. A gabled dormer in the rear pitch is blocked by a 20th-century rear addition. Much reused timber has been applied decoratively in the rear part of the house. The right bay was destroyed by fire in 1938; the only surviving elements are two wood-burning hearths. The ground-floor hearth has 0.33-metre jambs, rounded rear splays, and a 4-centred brick arch, repaired. The first-floor hearth has jambs moulded to an ovolo and concave profile, an ovolo-moulded segmental brick arch, and rear splays. These hearths and others were originally plastered but have been stripped back to the brickwork and sand-blasted. The exposed framing in this bay is wholly 20th-century, composed of reused old timbers.

Historical records show this holding was documented as Bettes in 1420 and Wasketts from 1521 (then comprising 22 acres). The Petre survey of 1556 records a house 40 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 9 feet high to the eaves, with a tiled roof. The Walker map of 1601 illustrates a pair of houses joined at an angle, with the left house (possibly the one recorded in the 1556 survey) consisting of one storey with attics, two doors, three windows, a gabled dormer above the middle window, and a chimney to its right. The smaller house to the right had a central chimney and two windows. This appears to be a 'Unit System' pair, providing joined houses for two related households sharing the same holding. The present house is entirely different and therefore of later date. By 1840 the house had been converted into three cottages. The cottage to the south-east of the stack was completely destroyed by fire in 1938, and the remainder was consolidated into one house. Major renovation took place around 1984.