Late 18th or early 19th century timber framed cart lodge and 20th century outbuildings, Frettons, Danbury (EHER 80834)

A late 18th or early 19th century timber framed cart lodge, now used as an office, and with early 20th century alterations creating a garage from previously open bays. The 1922 OS map shows piggeries attached to the building. There are other outbuildings in the yard, but these are mostly 20th century.

2023. Heritage assessment. The main timber framed N-S building is the only building of significant age in the complex, and appears on the 1843 tithe map and earliest OS maps. It is shown as having a short Eastward projection at the North end, just as it is today, as if a wing here had been truncated. At its South end, the maps show a short link to an E-W range. At the end of this, the 1922 map shows possible piggeries, and a small enclosure that would be suitable for keeping animals. A piggery is mentioned in the 1909 sale catalogue. The building has been fitted out as offices and studios, and widened on its East side with a flat roofed extension. Its original fabric is visible only in the loft, which is accessible only at its Southern end, and in the garages that occupy the middle of it. The garages occupy three open bays, with modern double doors with strap hinges to each bay. The floor is concrete, the ceiling is matchboarded and there are matchboarded partitions at each end. They were probably fitted out in this way in the early 20th century. The building is clad in weatherboard, all modern except for a patch of older boards at the North end of the West side. The roof is of old clay pegtiles, except for the East pitch which has concrete plain tiles. The windows, and those of the flat roofed extension which is also weatherboarded, are wooden, all modern, mostly with side and top opening lights. On the evidence of the roof, and what can be seen of the garages, as well as historic mapping, this building can be attributed to the late 18th or early 19th century, and the body of it interpreted as a cartlodge. To the South, an office building built at some time between 2009 and 2016 replaces a stable of probable 18th or 19th century date. To the SE stands a stable building built at some time between 1975 and 1987 and which is currently used for storage. To the North, a weatherboarded outbuilding used as a general store probably dates from the first half of the 20th century. Outside the yard to the West is a potting shed of undetermined date. <1>