Bell Bridge House

TL 32 NE ASPENDEN THE STREET 4/4 (south side) TL 3528 8/4 Bell Bridge House

1. 2.67

GV II

House. C15 or early C16 middle part, late C16 central chimney and parlour extension at E with floor inserted in C17, and C18 E chimney. W (service) part rebuilt in C18 or C19. Timber frame on low brick sill, roughcast with weatherboarded apron. Steep old red tile roof. A 2-storeys, 3-cells, central-chimney, lobby- entry plan house facing N with C17 rear stair turret, and gabled front porch (renewed). Irregular fenestration with 4 leaded flush casements to 1st floor and 3 to ground floor. 2-light flush Yorkshire sliding casements at rear. External E gable chimney added in C18 to heat previously unheated parlour. Parlour has exposed C17 chamfered and stopped narrow joists and axial beam to ceiling. Hall has a fine elaborately moulded timber C16 fireplace lintol to open fire, entrance to stair, and very massive flat axial joists, heavy cross-beam and massive square posts. Stepped-jowled post and jetty corner bracket survive in enclosed space by stair (note and drawings by Gordon Moodey in RCHM files) which with remaining upper-floor walls, tension bracing, tie-beams, and shutter groove for window on N side wall of chamber over hall, show that the late C16 chimney was built against a jettied external end-wall of an older building. What survives is the E bay of a 2-storeys wing, of at least 2 bays, of a house the hall and service end of which extended either in line to the W or at right angles to the S.

Listing NGR: TL3600428214