White House Farmhouse

MUNDON NEW HALL LANE TL 80 SE (north side) 2/64 White House Farmhouse ­ 11*

House. Circa 1570, altered in early C17, restored in early C20. Timber framed, plastered with exposed framing, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 5 bays facing SE, with external stack at right end and early C17 3-bay extension beyond. Early C17 external stack at left end. Main block of 2 storeys with attics, extension of 2 storeys. Main block, ground floor, 2 transomed 6-light oriels, each with a 4-light window to each side, with moulded jambs and mullions, wrought iron casements and diamond leading; these windows have been accurately restored in the early C20. First floor, 2 similar windows, but not transomed, and two 2-light casements in similar style. Attic, one C17 3-light window with one wrought iron casement and diamond leading in gabled dormer. Full-length jetty. Right extension, 4-window range of C20 casements in C16 style. C20 door in C17 porch of red brick in Flemish bond, with segmental arch, crow-stepped gable and round-headed niche, and one C20 door. Roof hipped at right end. Concertina shaft with moulded base. The interior has jowled posts, curved bracing trenched inside close studding, edge-halved and bridled scarfs in the wallplates. The left ground floor room of the main block has richly moulded and carved transverse and longitudinal beams, spiral leaf with foliate scroll stops, with moulded covings all round, joists plastered to the soffits, an original doorway with 4-centred head, and a wood-burning hearth with depressed arch of plastered brick with foliate spandrels. The right ground floor room has richly moulded and carved axial beams, of vine pattern, moulded joists of horizontal section with converging stops, and reset early C17 oak panelling. The first-floor rooms have moulded and carved transverse beams, in spiral leaf design, and moulded joists of horizontal section with foliate scroll stops. The right room has an original hearth with moulded mantel beam and moulded brick jambs. The roof is of crownpost construction, with one thin axial brace at the left end, and 4 octagonal crownposts with lamb's tongue stops and neither bracing, nor mortices for bracing - a rare or possibly unique construction. The stair to the attic is of solid treads. The right extension is of plainer construction, with plain joists of horizontal section in the right bay, diamond mortices for formerly unglazed windows, and jowled posts with arched braces. The whole roof of this wing, and the right part of the main roof, has been rebuilt in the C20. A canal approx. 2 km. long connects with the Blackwater estuary, terminating in a basin immediately behind the house, indicating that this was formerly the house of a merchant engaged in import-export or coastal trade. It is shown as White House on Chapman and André's map of 1777. It was described as partly plastered and partly weatherboarded, and in poor condition, by the RCHM (5), in the 1920s.

Listing NGR: TL8767503683