BRONTE (3)

This is a house, now divided into two separate dwellings, located in Stondon Massey. It likely dates to the late 16th century, with alterations and additions in the 18th and 19th centuries and the 20th century. The house is timber-framed with a roughcast rendered and colourwashed exterior, and has a peg-tile roof. It has a rectangular shape and stands one and a half storeys high, although the fenestration suggests a two-story and attic appearance. There are 20th-century single-story additions projecting to the north and south ends, with twin projections on the east side. The west front features a substantial central stack, dating to the 17th century and now rendered. The house was divided at this point, with number 4 having a central doorway, while number 3 has a room above it. Number 3 has 20th-century casement windows, featuring diamond leaded panes. On the ground floor, running north to south, there's a four-light window, a doorway with a gabled porch (also 20th century, timber-rendered with side lights), a boarded door with a diamond light, and a three-light window. The first floor has a three-light window aligned with the stack, a second three-light window, and a 20th-century dormer window with shaped bargeboards to a simple gable, topped with a peg-tiled roof and a two-light casement. Number 4 has a 20th-century bow window with glazing bars (two rows of three panes per light) on the ground floor, and a three-light casement window on the first floor. The north end elevation features a ground floor bow window, three lights with glazing bars (each with two rows of four panes), and a plain casement "picture" window above. The rear elevation is entirely 20th century, with a porch on the west side featuring a panelled door. The house is built into a hillside, and the roof of the original building is visible above the flat roof of a rear extension. Internally, a late 18th/19th-century addition on the south end features late primary bracing onto an earlier late 16th-century house of three bays, with heavy framing and straight arched bracing. The roof is wind braced and of side purlin type. Back-to-back principal fireplaces have been rebuilt, but a heavy stack and the location of a doorway for number 4 suggest the house was originally a three-celled lobby entrance type, with a heated parlour at the south end. The remains of a bread oven are located at the rear of the stack. Much of the interior woodwork has been renewed, though some slender 17th-century joists with diminished haunched tenons and pendant soffits remain, likely the result of an alteration. The house might have originally been built in the early 16th century as an open hall type with a single-story end, but evidence of this phase is no longer visible due to restoration work.