Perses

Perse is a cottage dating from the late 16th century, with extensions and alterations made in the 17th and 20th centuries. It is timber framed and plastered, with a thatched roof. Originally, the cottage had two bays, with the southern bay storeyed and the northern bay open to the roof, featuring an original brick chimney stack at the northern end from the late 16th century. An inserted floor in the open bay and a dormer in the west pitch of the roof were added in the early 17th century. The cottage was extended to the north by one bay in the 17th century, and a chimney stack was added to the southern end in the 19th or 20th century. A 20th-century extension to the east of the northern bay forms an L shape and is single storey with attics. The southern gable end has a French window with two casement windows above, all from the 20th century. The eastern extension features a door with large fixed lights on either side under a shallow porch, a three-light casement window, and two gabled dormers with casements. Some timber framing is exposed internally, with jowled storey posts and curved tension bracing trenched inside the studs in the original cottage. An inserted axial beam is stop-chamfered, and original floorboards remain in the northern bay. The site has been occupied since 1504, with records showing it was a holding of four acres until 1595, when it became a holding of one and a half acres with reaping service. This change in status seems to coincide with the construction of the original two-bay cottage. A similar building, referred to as The Cottage on Stane Street in Little Canfield, was noted as recently built in a survey from 1590, and other similar undocumented buildings are known. This transitional type of cottage, which has one bay open to the roof and an original end chimney stack, is historically significant and appears to have developed earlier in Essex than in other regions.