Roffey Cottages

TL 41 SE MATCHING HARLOW TYE Nos. 1 and 2 (Roffey 2/33 Cottages)

GV II

House, C16 or earlier, altered in C17 and C19, now 2 cottages. Timber framed, roughcast rendered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 4 bays aligned approx. NE-SW, aspect NW. Chimney stack in second bay from SW, forming a lobby entrance (door no. 2). External chimney stack on NE end. Lean-to extension to rear, and single storey extension to rear of SW bay, C19. 2 storeys. Ground floor, 2 plain boarded doors, C19/20, 3 casement windows and 2 fixed lights, C20. Roof hipped at both ends. Original wallplates immediately above first-floor level, containing edge halved and bridled scarfs. Middle tiebeam missing, others in situ. Second set of wall plates and tiebeams approx. 1.5 metres above the first. Floor in 2 middle bays supported on pegged clamps. Axial beams, plain chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, joists of vertical section unchamfered above ground and first floor. No wall framing exposed. Originally this house had eaves only about 2.5 metres high. The fact that the inserted floor in the 2 middle bays is supported on clamps suggests that it was an open hall. In the C17 the walls were raised by approx. 1.5 metres and the roof rebuilt, and it became a lobby-entrance house of 2 full storeys. In the C19 it was divided into cottages. This appears to be the same house which the RCHM recorded in Harlow parish (18) with grouped diagonal chimney shafts, but they are no longer present.

Listing NGR: TL4995611018