Cottage, barn and outbuildings approx 25m W of Beeleigh Abbey (EHER 38238)

A 16th century cottage with 19th and 20th century alterations, and an adjoining barn to the north-east. The main structure is built from red brick and the adjoining barn is part timber-framed. The roofs are covered with pantiles.

October 1996. Grade II listed. A 16th century cottage with 19th and 20th century alterations, and an adjoining barn to the north-east. The main structure is built from red brick in English-bond and shows evidence of 19th century alterations in brick with some blue/grey headers. The first floor is covered with early 20th century pargeted render. The adjoining barn structure is part timber-framed, making use of reused timber, and covered with black weatherboarding. The roofs are covered with pantiles. The cottage is two storeys and has the remains of a Tudor brick structure with buttress on its north-west elevation, and traces of former similar buttress on the south-west corner. There is also a single-storey, black weatherboarded timber-framed range to the north-east with a plain tile roof. <1> See photo <2>. March 2002. Archaeological excavation. A substantial brick footing was identified during renovation works on the gardens and further investigated by excavation. The footing itself was level with the current gravel drive and covered only by the modern turf and flowerbed. Once exposed, it formed a rectangular cell of dimensions 2.3 x 4.0 metres externally with the long side parallel to the cottage wall. The south wall and eastern wall were of continuous build in an approximation to English bond, being composed of whole and broken bricks of varying sizes. The northern wall was observed to be badly disrupted, probably by plant action and the subsequent building of the barn and cottage. It was butt jointed to the east wall. The northern footing appears to be the continuation of the wall that comprises the northern limit of the cottage and is visible inside the barn. All the walls had been smashed down to bring them level with the drive, except where the mortared bricks were too stubborn to remove. A sondage was dug in the south-east corner to establish the depth of the footing (which was four bricks at maximum) and to sample the stratigraphic sequence. Beneath the silty loam laid to accommodate the turf was a 220mm thick layer of gravel rich clay loam containing a high density of broken bricks, tile and green sandstone, all plastered with lime mortar. There were many animal bones including butchered ribs and vertebrae and some small mammal bones, as well as an appreciable amount of oyster and mussel shell. This layer spread above the pressure base (offset foundation) of the footing to the top of the cut-down wall and so represented a post-demolition layer. The cottage sits on the footings of a substantial Tudor building which itself may have stood on the foundations of a mediaeval building as exemplified by the gravel packing. The narrower footings represent an addition to the Tudor building to which it was butt jointed on shallow foundations. No cut was observed for a foundation trench. The brick footing is thought to be the remains of a small single-storey building recorded in a photo from 1912. The building butts the south side of the midstrey and has a gabled roof which passes into the interior of the current footprint of the cottage. It is most likely that this visible building re-used the footings of the earlier Tudor building and its earlier use can only be surmised but a porch, stair-tower or bay window would be most likely. <3> <4> See photos <5>.