Clapgate Farmhouse

Clapgate Farmhouse, Stondon Massey

House, dating from the early 17th century with 18th-century and 20th-century additions. The building is timber-framed, rendered and colour-washed with a peg-tiled roof. The plan is rectangular, though originally L-shaped, comprising a main range with a cross-wing to the east.

The exterior is two storeys high. All external windows are 20th-century replacements with diamond leaded casements, though some are set into 18th-century window frames with moulded architraves. The south front has a 20th-century porch at the junction of the main range and cross-wing. To the west is a window in an 18th-century frame, a French door, and a window in an extension. To the east are two windows fitted between the studding of the cross-wing with a central French window. A central gabled porch has a front and side light with a boarded door glazed with diamond lights. The first floor has a small window over the porch and three windows to the west, the second of which sits in an 18th-century frame. To the east, six windows are fitted between the studding of the gable with a central window within an 18th-century frame. The gable projects over with a 20th-century barge-board. Two chimney stacks are present: one in line with the porch and one on the west end gable.

The north elevation shows east and west gables with a flat-roofed two-storey 20th-century extension between them. A central timber and brick gabled porch has diamond leaded side lights and a door glazed with glazing bars in a 3x5 pane pattern. A stack on the north end of the east gable is built in English bond. Ground floor windows are irregular, with a metal casement to the east of the porch and two small windows in the east cross-wing to the west of the porch (one single and one double light). A boarded 'stable' door and a two-light casement are in the west extension. First floor windows are distributed across the east gable, west gable, and central range.

Internally, the east cross-wing is of superior build comprising two bays. The ground floor contains two rooms: the south room has an ovolo-moulded bridging joist, while the north room has lamb's tongue stopped chamfers. The joists of both rooms have diminished haunched soffit tenons set upon wall clamps. Evidence of windows survives on the south and north ends, the north one having had major and minor mullions, probably of ovolo type. The first floor of the cross-wing features internal corner tension bracing double-nailed across studs, with a face-halved and bladed scarf in the west wall plate.

The main range dates to the early 17th century and comprises two bays and a chimney bay. The ground floor central room has slender joists with a bridging joist showing lamb's tongue chamfer stops. The first floor west room has mullion holes on its north wall for a five-light window with shutter groove, with a matching shutter groove on the opposite wall. Internal corner down bracing and a face-halved and bladed scarf joint are present. Between the cross-wing and main range are back-to-back fireplaces with a stack, apparently contemporary with the timber frame (though the stack has been rebuilt). A small window over the front porch aligns with the stack and occupies the site of an original window for a closet that opened from the upper chamber of the cross-wing but was sealed off from the adjoining chamber to the west in the main range.

In the 18th century, a west cross-wing was added on the north side, and a rear ground-floor lean-to was built between the two cross-wings. This lean-to was raised to two storeys in the 20th century; some of the 18th-century tie-beams and studding remain within this later work. The early 17th-century cross-wing and main range are contemporary and employ the lobby entrance form, though not symmetrically, retaining a medieval spatial arrangement. The closet with its window over the entrance is consistent with this post-medieval house type. The framing and jointing of the cross-wing and main range are identical; only their shape and the higher level of decoration in the cross-wing distinguish the two sections.