Richards Cottage

Richards Cottage is a timber-framed house originally built in the early 15th century and extended in the 20th century. It stands at Mill Green Common near Ingatestone and Fryerning.

The building comprises a two-bay service cross-wing facing south-west, which formed part of a former hall-house that once extended south-east; the remainder of the hall range is now missing. The cross-wing is jettied to the front, supported by one original plain bracket, one introduced grown knee in place of a bracket, and two 20th-century posts at the corners. A one-bay rear extension of narrower span (approximately 3 metres) aligns on the left side and may represent the removed parlour or solar bay of the missing hall range. This rear extension has a 16th or early 17th-century internal stack on its right side, along with an 18th-century external stack to the left, now truncated about 2 metres above ground. A 20th-century extension of one storey with attics extends to the right of the rear extension, with a further single-storey 20th-century extension to the rear, creating an irregular T-shaped plan. The building is plastered and roofed with handmade red clay tiles. It is two storeys tall (the later extensions being lower). All windows are 20th-century casements. A 20th-century door is located on the right side of the rear wing. Original wide rafters and sprockets remain exposed below the left eaves. The right wall of the cross-wing is faced with plastered brickwork at first-floor level. Both the cross-wing and rear extension have gablet hips to their roofs.

Internally, the cross-wing displays jowled posts and heavy studding spaced at 0.75-metre centres with curved tension braces trenched to the outside; some lower-storey studs have been replaced. The rear girt has been replaced and studs below it omitted. Plain joists of horizontal section are jointed to the binding beam with unrefined central tenons; the binding beam retains mortices and a wattle groove indicating a former partition between the service bays. A post hollow-chamfered on one side, together with two hollow-chamfered four-centred doorheads, have been moved from their original positions and reassembled behind the chimney, with the front doorhead now at the rear; the post and one doorhead have been repaired. A large wood-burning hearth with 0.33-metre jambs remains, its rear jamb repointed with cement mortar; alterations at the rear of the hearth may indicate the removal of another hearth back-to-back with the surviving one. The mantel beam has been replaced. A cast-iron fireback bearing the arms of Charles I is reported to remain in situ. A groove for a shutter is visible below the jetty. On the first floor, the left wall contains a blocked unglazed window with one diamond mullion; no evidence of shuttering arrangement is visible. The front tie-beam has been replaced and plastered over. A cambered central tie-beam features two arched braces 0.10 metres wide, rebated into the jowls. The collar-rafter roof is original. The rear extension, apparently of the same date as the cross-wing, appears to have been removed from its original site at an early date and rebuilt in its present position; its smaller 3-metre span (compared with the cross-wing's 4.27 metres), lower wallplates, and lack of structural integration suggest it may be the parlour or solar bay of the missing hall range. The lower studs of the rear wall have been removed; two diamond mortices of an original unglazed window, each 0.07 metres square, are exposed. The remaining studs and pegging for missing studs follow the same wide spacing as the cross-wing. An unglazed window with two 0.05-metre diamond mullions has been inserted in the upper right wall between two studs retaining wattle fixings from former infill; the mullions are properly housed into a sill lapped and nailed to the studs, but are not housed into the wallplate. The floor is plastered to the soffit. A mortice in the left girt likely indicates the position of a former stair trap. The roof is plastered to the soffit, though original rafters are exposed at the right, cut off against the wallplate and marked with gauging holes.

The house was named Boxwood Cottage until recent years but is well documented in the Petre archives under the name Richards. A 1556 survey described it as 33 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 8 feet high to the eaves, with a tiled roof. The holding included an orchard, two crofts, and an 8-acre grove, suggesting involvement in the local pottery and tile industry rather than agriculture. The Walker map of 1601 depicts it with a low hall range featuring a central door and chimney with one window to each side, and a gabled two-storey cross-wing to the right with tiled roofs—apparently a left-right reversal of the arrangement shown by physical evidence (Essex Record Office). The building was stripped to the frame and substantially altered by architect John Amor in 1970.