The Oak

This is an early 16th-century house, altered in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is timber-framed and has plaster and weatherboard cladding, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The house is a continuous jetty house facing east, with two rear stacks and an external stack at the right end. A single-storey lean-to extension dating to the early 19th century adjoins the left side, with a slate roof. There is an 18th-century extension to the rear, with a gambrel roof, and a complex series of further extensions on each side of and beyond it, mostly from the early 19th century.

The house has two storeys. The ground floor has one early 19th-century sash window with sixteen lights, two 20th-century casement windows, and a door altered to a fixed light in the 20th century. The first floor has five early 19th-century two-light windows, each with a single wrought iron casement—the saddle bars have been removed. The early 19th-century front door is flush with six panels, the top two being glazed. A full-length jetty is exposed, supported by five plain brackets.

Inside, the timber framing shows “Suffolk” bracing between heavy studding, much of which is now plastered over. There are edge-halved and bridled scarfs in the wallplates, with the rear wallplate constructed from several short lengths of timber. On the ground floor, the studding of the left end and the next partition have been removed, and the soffits of the beams have been hacked back and some are boxed in. The roof is a crownpost roof with plain crownposts and axial bracing. Early 19th-century features include a staircase with stick balusters, a reeded fire surround (originally to the left of the axial stack), and a pine fireplace carved with the arms of Lord Nelson. This fireplace has been moved from the right ground floor room to the left.

A 1969 report by Harry Forrester, held by the owner, states that the joists were originally 180mm wide (though this is currently not visible), and that the original screens passage was the short bay near the right end, though this may be an original timber-framed chimney bay; there are some indications that the service bay was originally at the left end. The house was formerly known as Connies Oak or Flynters. Deeds dating from 1642 to 1677 are held in the Essex Record Office, D/DGh T.4. The property was acquired by Guy's Hospital in 1725, sold to Essex County Council in 1920, and the farmhouse was sold separately in 1949.