The Golden Fleece Inn

THE GOLDEN FLEECE INN

A house, now a public house, dating from around 1400, with additions and alterations in the early 16th century, 18th century, 19th century, and 20th century. The building is timber-framed and plastered with peg-tiled roofs, arranged in an H-plan with 18th and 19th century rear and end additions.

The exterior presents a two-storey facade on the south elevation, with a central range flanked by jettied cross-wings of unequal size: the western wing is small, whilst the eastern wing is substantially larger. At ground floor level, the eastern and western jetties retain part of the original bressumer, moulded with hollow and roll details. The building features several stacks: a central rectangular stack and a stack with four diagonal shafts at the junction with the western cross-wing, plus a similar stack of three shafts (partly rendered) on the eastern side of the eastern cross-wing. An inner plain stack rises through the roof of the western cross-wing. The central range has a plain parapet.

Windows and doors vary in date. The ground floor includes an early 19th-century canted bay window with horned sashes (glazing bars, 2x4, 4x4, 2x4 panes), an early 19th-century horned sash window with 4x4 panes and moulded architrave, a central 20th-century boarded and battened door with an upper lozenge light, and an early 20th-century casement with 4x4 panes in an earlier frame. An old doorway on the cross-passage site is now a fixed window with 4x4 panes. The western cross-wing has an 18th-century cornice and an early 20th-century bay window with 5x5 panes, with a lean-to out-shut containing an early 20th-century fixed window (3x3 panes). At first-floor level, the eastern and western cross-wings feature triple sash windows with glazing bars (1x4, 3x4, 1x4 panes), whilst the central range has two early 19th-century sash windows (4x4 panes). The western cross-wing retains an 18th-century cornice and a Venetian sash window (1x4, 3x4, 1x4 panes). A small fixed light exists in the roof space above the eastern cross-wing.

The rear of the central range contains 18th-century infilling between the cross-wings, consisting of three equal units, each with a hipped peg-tiled roof and a two-light casement window with 4x2 panes. The eastern cross-wing has a fixed light in the roof space; the western cross-wing has a plain first-floor two-light casement window. The eastern end elevation displays a projecting stack with old bricks (circa 1600) below rebuilt shafts, and at first floor level a sash window with moulded architrave and 3x4 panes (early 19th century). The western end has a small first-floor doorway to the north, and an 18th-century addition with early 20th-century casement windows (one two-light, one four-light). The rear of the building contains considerable 20th-century work, including a shed, stair, and rear addition, which are not included in this listing.

The interior reveals a timber structure of two principal periods. The first, in the western cross-wing, comprises a crown post roof serving a two-bayed upper chamber with a cambered tie-beam and a four-way braced crown post, dated to around 1400, with very short base and capital that merge. Remains of a single mullioned window on the eastern side of the upper chamber are masked by a later hall addition.

The second period, early 16th century, encompasses the open hall and eastern cross-wing, both executed in a similar high style. The hall features deep arched braced trusses stabilised by spur ties from principal posts. The central truss of the hall is distinguished by queen posts on a tie-beam with intermediate arched bracing to a slightly cambered collar. The arched braces descend to curved corbels on the centre posts and are constructed in two joined sections to gain depth. Clasped side purlins and ogee curved wind braces support the roof rafters. The eastern cross-wing has a two-bayed front upper chamber with deep arched braces rising to a well cambered collar (no upper structure). Its clasped side purlin roof features ogee wind braces on the eastern pitch and simple compassed braces on the western pitch. The rear two bays of the eastern cross-wing employ similar construction with plain queen posts on tie-beams.

Throughout the hall and eastern cross-wing, principal members are richly moulded with double ogee, hollow, half rolls, and cyma profiles. The walls display close studding with exterior tension bracing. Domestic features include two original doorways with four-centred arched heads, connecting the hall to the eastern and western cross-wings, and a doorway at each end of the rear of the hall. Two similar doorways remain in the rear section of the eastern cross-wing on the ground and first floors. The spacing of principal decorated posts on the front of the hall block indicates the former position of the hall window and confirms, along with door evidence, that the eastern end was the 'high' end of the building. Shutter groove and peg evidence at the front of the eastern cross-wing attest to the existence of large windows on the ground and first floors. Fireplaces, though rebuilt, remain in their original positions throughout the hall and eastern cross-wing.

The exceptionally high standard of construction in the early 16th-century phase—providing a remarkable four-bayed open hall and cross-wing of similar status—has prompted local historians to speculate that these improvements were commissioned by Waltham Abbey to provide a court house on their land, intended to draw prestige and trade away from Brentwood, which was held by St Osyth's Abbey. If correct, the improvements would have been added to the earlier existing western cross-wing.