Former Fridays Farmhouse

This is a former farmhouse, now a house, dating to the mid-15th century with a significant addition around 1600. An 18th-century refronting and reroofing occurred, followed by a 20th-century rear extension. The structure is timber frame and brickwork, rendered and covered with a slate hipped roof. The front features four vertical sliding sash windows, each with eight panes, and a six-panel door with a fanlight above, sheltered by a flat-headed canopy supported on moulded brackets. A red brick stack is also present.

A service crosswing has two bays aligned north-south and displays substantial oak frame construction with fully pegged joints. It features jowled storey posts and external trenched bracing. The ground floor has flat section floor joists jointed into bridging joists, displaying a housed soffit and central tenon joint. A stair trap is located in the northwest corner, with a 2½ inch (63 mm) chamfer on the bridging joist and angled stops. Empty mortises indicate the position of a former central partition. Service door openings are identifiable by their peg positions. A three-diamond mullion window, with a shutter groove, is visible in the rear wall. The first floor shows a missing tie beam, indicating a roof raising of two feet, along with an empty brace mortice for an open central truss. Another three-diamond mullion window is present on the rear wall, and an opening in the east wall may have served as a garderobe.

The hall range, built around 1600, is a two-story structure with three bays aligned east-west. The oak frame is pegged and incorporates jowled storey posts with internal serpentine bracing. The ground floor features vertical section common floor joists with soffit tenons diminishing into chamfered axial bridging joists. The original front door is retained in its cross-entry position, along with a contemporary brick stack and timber mantlebeam. Brick jambs were rebuilt in the 1980s. Evidence of a former parlor partition has been lost. A trimmed stair opening is located in the west end parlor bay. The first floor retains a cranked brace from an open truss adjacent to the brick stack, exposed close studding in the west chamber bay, and trenched-down bracing to a studded bay partition. A door position is against the north wall. A three-diamond mullion window is in the west wall; there’s no evidence of shutter grooves or pintle hinge holes. The exposed internal north wall shows original pegged rafter housings of a former queen post roof.

Documentary evidence, referenced in Reaney's "Place Names of Essex," suggests a connection to the family of Richard Ffriday from 1285.