Adkins

Adkins is a house of late 14th-century origin with 16th and 17th-century phases, substantially renovated and extended in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It stands on Back Lane, Fryerning. The building is timber-framed with plaster rendering and a roof of handmade red clay tiles.

The structure comprises a 2-bay main range facing south-east, originally an open hall but extensively altered or rebuilt in the 17th and 20th centuries, retaining a late 16th-century stack in the left bay against the front wall. To the right is a late 14th-century 2-bay cross-wing, with a late 19th-century extension beyond. A 17th-century 2-bay cross-wing stands to the left with an external stack at its left end, and a single-storey wing extends to the rear. Early 20th-century extensions have been added to the rear of the main range.

The exterior presents 2 storeys. Most windows are 20th-century casements. One window, at the rear of the left cross-wing on the first floor, retains original features: ovolo-moulded jambs, two diamond saddle bars, and an 18th-century wrought-iron casement with rectangular leaded panes. A 20th-century door sits within a late 19th-century gabled porch in front of the right cross-wing.

The right cross-wing contains jowled posts and heavy studding with external bracing. Joists of heavy square section are jointed to the binding beam with central tenons. Pressure marks on the soffits indicate a former jetty at the front; a rear joist of reused timber blocks an original stair trap. The binding beam carries mortices and a triangular groove for studs and wattle-and-daub infill of an original partition, though this does not necessarily indicate the cross-wing was the medieval service bay. A cambered central tie-beam spans the room with two arched braces 0.11 metres wide. The crownpost roof is exposed to the collars, featuring a square crownpost with two axial braces 0.05 metres wide. The arched braces, wallplates and storey posts are chamfered, mostly with mitred stops but with plain stops on the wallplates at the central truss. A wide wood-burning hearth in the hall range, all plastered, has 0.33-metre jambs and a seat recess in each side.

The hall range has undergone extensive alteration. Two tie-beams have been created by sawing a single original cambered tie-beam lengthwise; the depth has been reduced with ogee-profiled shoulders where they meet the front wallplate and a partition about one metre from the rear wall. The left cross-wing contains unjowled posts and cambered tie-beams (reused from the hall) supporting a clasped purlin roof with straight collars. Some rafters are smoke-blackened with oblique trenches for collars, probably from the original hall roof.

The building is well documented in the Petre archives under the name Hawkins alias Whites. A 1556 survey records a house 46 feet long by 18 feet wide, 9 feet to the eaves, with a tiled roof; and a kitchen measuring 24 feet by 13 feet by 13 feet by 10 feet to the eaves, partly tiled. The former is 2 feet shorter than the pre-19th-century part of the present house; the latter corresponds closely with the present kitchen wing to the rear of the left cross-wing. The Walker map of 1601 illustrates a low hall range with central door, one window to each side, a stack between the door and left window, and a 2-storey cross-wing to the right. This appears reversed from the house as shown by physical evidence, with a second cross-wing added later in the 17th century on the site of the former parlour bay. As the opposite house, Spilfeathers, is similarly reversed on the map, it is possible that the Walkers depicted the houses correctly but reversed their map positions.

The present name probably derives from John Atkins, who owned the house until his death in 1753. The initials S I S and the date 1792 are indented in the plaster ceiling of the ground-floor room of the hall range, though historical enquiries have failed to identify the persons concerned. The First Edition large-scale Ordnance Survey map of 1874 shows an entrance path at the left end of the main range and a barn immediately east of the right cross-wing. The Second edition of 1894 shows the porch and entrance path in their present position, the barn removed, and the present north-west extension, confirming that the original cross-entry was to the left of the main stack, with the service bay and external kitchen at that end. Insufficient structure of the present kitchen wing is exposed to determine whether it is the same as that recorded in the 1556 survey, though this remains a possibility for investigation during any future alterations. Surviving medieval kitchens are rare in Essex.