White House Farm

White House Farm is a timber-framed house of the early 17th century with twentieth-century additions, situated on the south side of Magpie Lane in Little Warley, Brentwood. The building has been rendered and is constructed with brick, with roofs of peg-tile, pantile and flat tile.

The house is rectangular in plan with twentieth-century additions to the rear and to the east and west ends. The exterior is two storeys with attics. A prominent seventeenth-century central stack with six diagonally set shafts is a dominant feature.

The north front elevation has a ground floor of twentieth-century red brick rebuilding and a first floor that is timber-framed and rendered. This elevation displays a range of three windows, all twentieth-century casements of three lights except a two-light window positioned over a central twentieth-century boarded front door. The peg-tiled roof has the stack set towards the front of the house. The rear south elevation is twentieth-century work, featuring a central gabled two-storeyed wing with a small central stack and two adjacent lean-tos of differing heights. One is blank while the other has a twentieth-century rear house door with two panels and an adjacent twentieth-century casement window partly blocked. A twentieth-century ground-floor lean-to extends at the east end, projecting eastwards with a stack at its west end, which has one two-light and one single-light window. The additions are pebble dash rendered with roofs of peg, flat and pantile. The blank rear wall of the house to the west is rendered and colour-washed. A nineteenth or twentieth-century lean-to brick shed with a boarded door stands here. The east end elevation shows the gable end of the original house to the north, which is timber-framed and rendered with one ground-floor two-light window and one first-floor metal-framed two-light window. A twentieth-century attic sash window with glazing bars of two by four panes sits above. A seventeenth-century axial stack stands behind the gable. To the south, a twentieth-century range and out-shut have a gable end stack at the south end, with one single-light and one two-light window at ground floor and one two-light window at first floor. A central twentieth-century ground-floor addition has a gable end stack behind it, with one single-light fixed window and one single-light metal casement window. The west end elevation shows the gable end of the original house to the north. At ground floor, a twentieth-century brick lean-to with a corrugated asbestos roof has two three-light casement windows. The first floor and attic each have a twentieth-century two-light casement window, with a seventeenth-century stack behind the gable. A twentieth-century addition to the south has a ground-floor three-light casement window and one single-light casement in a lean-to to the south, with a stack above. At first floor there is one single-light casement window.

The interior is arranged as a two-celled plan with a central chimney bay. The bridging joists on ground and first floors have lamb's tongue chamfer stops, some with an extra notch typical of early seventeenth-century decoration. The common joists are of deep section and plain. The fireplaces have been rebuilt in the twentieth century, though they are said originally to have had timber lintels. The stair at the rear of the house has been remodelled, but the entry to the attic still retains its original gabled stair well for a newel stair at the back of the central stack. Ground-floor doorways have been re-sited in the twentieth century, but are said to have originally been positioned appropriately for a lobby entrance and rear stair system. The roof is of side purlin form with high collars and rafters pegged to the back of the side purlins.

The house frame at the west end has jowled posts, while at the east end the unjowled posts have chamfered arched braces to the tie-beam with a central soffit fillet. Pegs in the tie-beams and braces suggest the existence of spandrel struts. The two arched braces were cut from a single timber, with matching defects. The end truss is considerably older than the rest of the framing, probably dating to no later than the early fifteenth century, and was probably reused from elsewhere. Its presence suggests that the house may have been built as a three-celled building with an elegant two-bayed upper chamber to the east, incorporating this elegant open truss as a central feature. Rebates for window shutters remain at the front and back of this chamber.