Brickhouse Farmhouse

Brickhouse Farmhouse is a house built around 1680 to 1700, which has been altered and extended in the 19th century. It features a timber-framed structure with an original brick facade, while the rear and side walls are plastered. The main roof is tiled, and there is a rear extension made of brick with slate roofs. The house has five bays and faces northwest, with internal chimney stacks at each gable. The 19th-century extensions at the southwest end create an L-shaped plan.

The facade is made of red brick in Flemish bond, incorporating blue flared headers and flat arches of gauged brickwork above all windows. There is a string course at the first-floor level and plain wooden modillions beneath the cornice. On the ground floor, there are four 19th-century sash windows, each with six upper lights and two lower lights, along with a central porch featuring square pillars and a pediment. Flat-arched recesses at each end of the facade, one on each floor, highlight the chimney stacks behind them, contributing to a balanced overall composition.

This farmhouse is notable for being a type that is otherwise rare in rural Essex, closely following the style and construction of more prestigious houses built in the City of London between 1670 and 1690. Its main distinction lies in its brick facade, while the rest of the structure is timber-framed. The roof features a unique construction not commonly found in Essex, consisting of two closed and four open upper cruck trusses, or trusses with curved principal rafters, supported by butt purlins, similar to those at St. Paul's Deanery in the City of London.

In a sale catalogue from 1797, it was described as "A Gentlemanlike Farm House, Brick Built," reflecting its uncommon status at the time. The house underwent re-fenestration and the addition of a porch during the mid-Victorian period, along with rear extensions. Part of the original external wall, now located inside, displays whitewashed plaster with a combed zig-zag design.