Kettle'S

Kettle's

A timber-framed house at Trueloves Lane, Ingatestone, originally built in the mid-16th century and substantially altered over subsequent centuries.

The main building is a two-bay structure, timber-framed, plastered and weatherboarded, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It measures approximately 25 feet long and 18 feet wide. The northeast-facing front elevation has a late 16th-century axial internal stack at the right end and an early 19th-century external stack at the left end. Early 19th-century extensions project from each end, aligned with the rear wall but with a narrower span and lower roof than the original. A 19th or 20th-century lean-to with an internal stack stands at the rear of the right extension, and a 20th-century single-storey wing extends from the rear of the left extension. The building is two storeys high.

Windows throughout are 20th-century casements. A 20th-century porch with a hipped roof of handmade red clay tiles stands at the front, slightly left of centre, containing two plain boarded doors. A second 20th-century plain boarded door with a lean-to porch (roofed with machine-made red clay tiles) is located at the left side. The original left tie-beam, plastered, projects at the front left corner. A sloping board across the front elevation marks the original eaves height before the roof was raised in the early 19th century. Weatherboarded cladding covers the dado at front and both ends, and extends around the right lean-to. The original left wall where it projects in front of and above the left extension is weatherboarded. Some exposed false framing appears on the left gable of the left extension and on the rear left extension, which is roofed with machine-made red clay tiles. The rear wall of the original building is weatherboarded; the remainder is plastered and roofed with handmade tiles.

Interior

The original structure contains jowled posts with arched braces from corner posts to wallplates within heavy studding. The arched braces extend from the central tie-beam. As originally built, the left bay was a storeyed room and the right bay was an open hall rising from ground to roof, with some form of chimney at the right end (probably timber-framed). The present brick stack at the right end was inserted before 1601; a floor was then inserted in this bay, either at that time or in the 17th century.

The original floor in the left bay comprises plain joists of horizontal section arranged longitudinally, with some replacements and a later supporting beam beneath; some boards are of early hardwood. The right bay floor has a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops, plain joists of vertical section, and original rebated hardwood boards that are almost complete. An original plain doorway in the rear wall of the right bay is now blocked by a later stair. The original studding between the bays survives, though its sill was altered in the 20th century. The end tie-beams have been severed for doorways to the 19th-century extensions. The central tie-beam is notched for an inserted doorway above it, which was later blocked.

The original cottage roof has been raised approximately one metre, leaving the three transverse frames in place to their apices. The stack at the right end retains its original clay mortar, though the hearth width has been reduced. Alterations made during the 19th-century conversion to two cottages—including insertion and later removal of a stair in the left bay—disturbed some joists; a transverse beam was inserted to support them. The early 19th-century roof features wallplates bridled to straight tie-beams.

Historical Context

The cottage is documented in a 1556 survey as "a tenement called Kettles", measuring 25 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 8 feet high to the eaves (dimensions corresponding with the present main building), with a thatched roof and a holding of 7 acres, with John Pepper as tenant. It appears in court rolls in 1556, 1560, 1573, 1575, 1576 (twice), 1579, 1586, and 1601. The Walker map of 1601 illustrates it as a simple building with a door and brick chimney near the right end, three windows, and a thatched roof; the plot shown on the Walker map corresponds exactly with the present site.

In the 19th century, Trueloves Lane was diverted from its original line towards Trueloves to follow a curved field boundary southwest of it, now forming the north boundary of Kettle's.

Small two-bay houses of this early origin are rare, and this example has survived in remarkably intact form. It is unique in being fully documented, described, and illustrated during the period 1556-1601.