Pett'S Cottage, Armond House And House Immediately To North East

GREAT OAKLEY QUEEN STREET TM 1827-1927 (south-east side) 7/36 Pett's Cottage, Armond House and house immediately to north- east

GV II

Complex group originally comprising one C18 house and one C15 house, combined and re-divided to form 3 houses. Timber framed, plastered and weatherboarded, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. All facing NW. The C18 house, at the left, now comprises the NE part of Armond House and the house to NE of it; it has an axial stack, almost central, a lean-to garage to the left, and a lean-to extension to the rear, and is of 2 storeys with attics. On each floor one early C19 sash of 16 lights and one C18/early C19 sash of 12 lights, with some crown glass; at the left end of the front elevation, 6-panel door with plain overlight and moulded flat canopy on scrolled brackets. Gambrel roof with elaborately moulded eaves cornice in the Gothick style. The C15 house to SW of it comprises the SW part of Armond House and Pett's Cottage to the SW; it has a 2-bay hall with an early C17 stack in the left bay, an originally storeyed service bay to the left and an originally storeyed parlour/solar bay to the right. Rear extensions. 2 storeys. 3 C20 casements on the ground floor, 4 on the first floor. At the left end the door to Armond House is of 6 panels, the upper 4 glazed; the door to Pett's Cottage is of plain boarded type. At the time of survey, September 1985, Armond House was undergoing major renovation; a trellised gabled porch was demolished, and a timber-framed false front with parapet was being replaced in breeze block. The ground floor of Pett's Cottage is weatherboarded. The C15 house has jowled posts, heavy studding with curved tension braces trenched to the outside, some panels of original stick wattle and daub, and edge-halved and bridled scarfs in both wallplates. In the service end plain joists of horizontal section are arranged longitudinally. The inserted floor in the hall has a deeply chamfered transverse beam. The inserted stack is much mutilated. Diamond mortices and shutter grooves for unglazed windows. Crownpost roof, heavily smoke-blackened over the hall; the central crownpost is of octagonal section with a square base and a moulded square cap, and 4-way arched braces, complete. Shown as 3 dwellings in the tithe award of 1841 (Essex Record Office, D/CT 258). There are close similarities between the Gothick eaves cornice and that of Oakley House, Thorpe-le-Soken (item 9/96, q.v.).

Listing NGR: TM1944027571