Chalk Cottage On East Side Of Jmi School

Chalk Cottage, formerly known as Chalk Pit Cottage, is a house located on the east side of JMI School in Little Hadham. It dates from the late 17th century or early 18th century and has been extended at both ends during the 18th and 19th centuries. A thatched rear extension was added in 1979. The building is long, low, and single-storey, constructed with a timber frame and plastered exterior, facing north, and features a half-hipped thatched roof. The slightly higher middle section is the oldest part of the house.

An eyebrow dormer is positioned above the front door, which is accompanied by a three-light late 17th-century mullioned leaded window with an iron casement, indicating that this section was originally one and a half storeys high. The house has an external gable chimney on the west end, which has been adapted to serve a single-storey west extension built in the 18th century, featuring two windows on each side. The lower east extension is likely from the 19th century. The rear wall includes low three-light and four-light 19th-century casements, and there is a plank front door.

Historical documents indicate that the cottage was built around 1700 on newly-enclosed land beside the road and was long owned by Abraham Wood, a bricklayer and limeburner who passed away in 1813 and had a limekiln on the land at the rear. An old chalk pit is located opposite the house. This property is an important historical example of the early stages of permanent house-building for that level of society and is part of a group with the school and other buildings at The Ash.