Description

INGATESTONE AND FRYENING

TL60SW MILL GREEN COMMON
723-1/2/409 Potter Row Farmhouse
22/02/82 (Formerly Listed as:
BRENTWOOD
MILL GREEN COMMON, Ingatestone
Potter Row Farmhouse)

GV II

House, c1400. Timber-framed, weatherboarded and plastered,
roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Main range of 2 bays
facing N, with central st"a:ck. 2-bay cross-wing to right, with
external stack at front left, and lean-to porch roofed with
corrugated iron to right of it.
Main range of one storey with attics, cross-wing of 2 storeys.
The main range has one C19/early C20 casement, and one more in
a gabled dormer; plain boarded door near left end. Panel of
painted brickwork between door and window, wall plastered
above a weatherboarded dado, and weatherboarded to left of
brlck panel. Gablet hip at left end, the gablet abutting on
the stack. The front of the cross-wing probably jettied, but
completely concealed by the stack and porch. One similar
casement on first floor. The porch has a half-glazed door and
one C20 casement. A small area on the left of the cross-wing,
above the roof of the main range, has one exposed jowled post
and heavy studding; all the remainder is weatherboarded. One
similar casement in the right side of the cross-wing, on the
ground floor. The rear elevation has 4 similar casements on
the ground floor, one more in a gable dormer, and one C20
casement on the first floor of the crosswing. The roof of the
crosswing has a gablet hip to the rear.
INTERIOR: the longer right bay of the hall has exposed heavy
studding at 0.84m centres with curved display bracing, large
diameter peg-holes for a former fixed bench, and an original
parlour doorway with a mortice for a former draught screen,
doorhead missing. Late C16 inserted floor comprising a
chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops and plain joists
of horizontal section supported on pegged clamps. Cambered
tie-beam with one of 2 deep arched braces to it, reaching to
within 0.40m of the ground, and 4 peg-holes for the missing
brace at the front end. C20 grate. The upper room over this
bay is wholly plastered, to the soffits of the rafters and
collars. The shorter left bay of the hall is largely occupied
by the stack and an access passage, plastered. The rear
wallplate is exposed, chamfered with step stops. The left
(service) bay has a plasterd axial partition, probably
original, and much of the original partition between it and
the hall; it is unstoreyed. The roof of the hall is difficult
to access; it is heavily smoke-blackened, and appears to have
no evidence of crownpost structure, a simple collar-rafter
structure. The cross-wing has heavy joists of square section
jointed to the chamfered binding beam with unrefined central
tenons; one of 2 curved solid braces to the binding beam, over
0.12m wide, is in a cupboard below the straight stair. Storey
posts with sharply cut jowls. Simple collar-rafter roof with
original gablet hip. Cambered central tie-beam, braces to it
missing.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this house is well documented in the Petre
archives. A survey of 1556 records a house 36 feet long, 17
feet wide and 12 feet high to the eaves with a tiled roof,
which corresponds closely with the present house, and a
holding of 12 acres. The Walker map of 1601 illustrates a
house comprising a single-storey hall range with a door at the
right end, 2 windows and a central stack, with a 2-storey
cross-wing to the right. This house is exceptional in being
little altered since the C16, and in not having acquired
lean-to and other extensions. It merits careful conservation.
(Essex Record Office: D/DP M.170: 8).

Listing NGR: TL6425001639

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26502839

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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