House Adjoining May Cottage On West

TL 4521 LITTLE HADHAM CRADLE END (east side)

12/6 House adjoining May Cottage on W - GV II

House. C16, front wall heightened and house converted to 2 cottages in C19. Now one house. Long, narrow, timber frame of 4 structural bays on rendered and painted sill wall, facing S. Plastered rear wall of single storey, below very steep pitched gabled roof now slated. 2 storeys, 4 window white weatherboarded front with flatter pitched slated roof slope. Weatherboarded W gable and W lean-to garage with pantiled roof and clay lump rear wall. Paired tension braces exposed internally in E end wall. Original close studded partition divided off E bay. W bay, probably originally a smoke bay, retains a heavy lintel/tie beam spanning the width of the house which is deeply chamfered on the W side for much of its length between soffit mortices for jamb uprights. This probably carried a timberframed chimney. Stop chamfered axial beams carry a floor inserted in the 3 E bays probably in the C17. A red brick central chimneystack with back- to-back fireplaces and a winding stair on the N side was subsequently built in the middle of the house and the old smoke bay floored over. Steep stair in the SE corner of the house until recently. The subdivision of the house, the 2-light small paned wood casement windows, the raising of the front wall and the rebuilding of the chimney cap in yellow stock bricks, date from the Cl9. Half-glazed front doors into each half of the house and dripboards over the Ground floor windows.

Listing NGR: TL4584721820