Drapers Farm

Drapers Farm is a house of early 15th-century and 17th-century date, located on the west side of Drapers Chase in Heybridge, Maldon. It is timber-framed and rendered with some rendered brick, with a plain tile roof featuring ridgeline and slope stacks.

The building presents a complex plan comprising two distinct sections. The eastern, lower part is part two-storeys and part one-storey-and-attic with a two-window range and single-window range respectively. The western section is two-storeys with a two-window range.

The two-storey western part has two 2-light 19th-century casements with top ventilators over a single similar window, and a 20th-century open gabled porch with door and side window. This section is of rendered brickwork with a large rectangular stack on the centre of the ridge. The lower eastern part features a gabled dormer with plain 2-light casement and a plain raised late 15th-century stack through the front roof slope. The ground floor has a 12-pane sash window, a door with small panes, and an asymmetrical 20th-century small-paned casement. The east gable has a similar central 20th-century casement window centred over two identical windows. The rear elevation of the lower part has one 20th-century small-paned casement, a small window with cross-glazing pattern, and a 3-light, 9-pane casement. The roof of the two-storey part carries down as a catslide, with the rear elevation featuring a sash window with central vertical glazing bar, a plain door, and a 20th-century two-light casement. A flat-roofed 20th-century extension exists on the west end with a small stack on the gable end.

Internally, the eastern part of the building comprises the remains of an in-line hall house of the early 15th century. This has a two-bay hall with an inserted 17th-century floor featuring a central truss with heavy arch brace supporting the tie beam and a plain crown post with 4-way bracing. Beneath the remaining arch brace is a blocked mortice for a capital or, more likely, a low beam between the posts. Fragments of the front and back walls remain with remnants of hall windows, originally with five mullions. The west wall was open-framed with arch braces to the tie beam. To the east is a storied service end with only one service door. Much framing survives here, including jowled posts, part of a wall brace in the service wall portion, and remnants of windows in the front and rear walls. Half the original floor survives, with a large soffit, tenoned joists, and evidence for a stair trap.

Within the former hall is a late 15th-century brick stack in the usual position backing on to the cross-passage. This has side arches with segmental brick heads, seats, and a timber mantel beam. Over the mantel beam is a panel of herringbone brickwork, recently rebuilt and probably infilling an earlier recessed overmantel panel. The 17th-century western two-storey section is now much rebuilt. A stack retains an early 17th-century brick fireplace with moulded depressed arch. Some original doors with L-hinges remain.

An inscription pencilled on the wall records: "5th day of March 1883. / Bill Gymer mixes the mortar / W Holt drinks the porter / T Cudmore chops the sticks / C Baxter lays the bricks / O Sargeant tickles the gals / These are the best of old pals." The rhyme is signed OJC with builders' signatures appended above.