Halfway House Farm

The Halfway House Farm is an early 18th-century house with early 19th-century alterations, located on Weald Road in South Weald, Brentwood. The house is timber-framed and rendered with pebble dash, and has a hipped roof covered in peg tiles. Early 19th-century brick stacks rise through the hip at the east and west sides. The layout is rectangular, with a 19th-century brick out-shut to the west and a central projection at the rear.

The north front has a slightly projecting roof with a dentilled eaves cornice, and features a three-window range. The ground and first-floor windows are sash windows with horns and narrow side lights, set within moulded architraves. A central doorway has a moulded architrave, reveals with fielded panels, a pulvinated frieze, and a pediment. The door is two-leaved, with six fielded panels. A sash window sits above the doorway with a moulded architrave. 20th-century skylights have replaced earlier flat-roofed dormers. A 19th-century brick lean-to is attached to the west. The south rear elevation is similar to the front, but with a central projection, likely originally a stair tower. The ground floor is bricked, with a blocked round-headed door opening, and a sash window above with a moulded architrave. Three similar windows are present, sashes with glazing bars and side lights, arranged in a 1x4, 3x4, 1x4 pane pattern. A doorway on the ground floor to the east has a moulded architrave and boarded door, with a 20th-century lean-to porch and conservatory in front. Two skylights are present, replacing dormers as on the front. The west elevation features a central stack, a ground-floor sash window with a moulded architrave, a 19th-century out-shut with a three-light casement window (3x2 panes), and a small lean-to extension to the out-shut to the north.

Inside, an 18th-century dogleg staircase has a shaped handrail and turned balusters. Several 18th-century doors with fielded panels remain. An iron locking bar is on the front door. A cupboard door dating from around 1600, with framed and panelled construction—moulded muntins, splay-stopped and beaded rails—has been reset from elsewhere. The rear projection has been altered and was likely originally a stair tower. Attic rooms have old boarded doors with bead decoration. The house retains its early 18th-century shape, although the principal windows, chimney stacks, and many internal doors have been replaced in the early 19th century.