Description

MOUNTNESSING

TQ69NW ARNOLDS FARM LANE
723-1/6/452 (West side)
20/02/76 Arnold's Farmhouse
(Formerly Listed as:
BRENTWOOD
ARNOLDS FARM LANE, Mountnessing
Arnold's Farmhouse)

GV II

House. Mainly c1600, C18 and early C19, with earlier fragment.
Timber-framed, clad with red brick in Flemish bond and stucco,
roofed with handmade red clay tiles and slate. L-plan facing
approximately SW.
EXTERIOR: the left part of the entrance range is early C18,
the right part early C19, each with a rear stack. Service
range of 3 bays to rear of left part, with external stack to
left of middle bay. The rear bay includes a fragment of a late
C15 house, the remainder is mainly c1600. In the rear right
angle, early C19 2-storey lean-to, and to right of it, early
C19 single-storey lean-to, both with slate roofs. To left of
entrance range, C19 long single-storey lean-to of red brick,
roofed with red clay `Roman' tiles. 2 storeys and cellar. The
entrance elevation is asymmetrical. Ground floor, three C18
sashes of 6+6 lights to left of door, and one sash of similar
proportions to right of it. First floor, three C18 sashes of
6+6 lights at left, 2 sashes of similar proportions at right.
Early C19 half-glazed door, with 2 beaded flush panels and,
marginal lights, in simple early C19 portico with moulded
cornice, mutules and altered square piers. Band at first-floor
level. Hipped roof of slate. The lean-to to left has one
blocked window aperture and 2 cast-iron roundels. The front
elevation of the main house is stuccoed, extending about half
a metre round each return. The rear right corner of the
entrance range is recessed to a quadrant of short radius. The
right elevation of the entrance range has an early C19 sash of
6+6 lights on each floor, the ground-floor sash damaged at
time of inspection, July 1989. The right elevation of the
service range has an early C19 tripartite sash of 4-12-4
lights on each floor. The left elevation of the service range
has on the ground floor one early C19 sash of 8+8 lights and
one early C19 casement of 6+6 lights, and on the first floor
one similar sash and 2 similar casements. The rear elevation
of the lean-to to the main range has on the first floor one
early C19 sash of 6+6 lights; the rear elevation of the
service range has on the ground floor one early C19 casement
of 6+6 horizontal panes. Some handmade glass in some of these
windows. The brick cladding is early C19, and the early C19
section of the main range is of brick construction.
INTERIOR: the left ground-floor room of the entrance range has
C18 folding shutters in the square reveals of all 3 windows,
and a white marble fireplace with paterae. The right
ground-floor room has early C19 folding shutters in the wide
splays of both windows, and an early C19 cast-iron fireplace
with paterae. The pantry to rear of it is fully fitted with
attached dressers to front and rear, rare survivals which
merit special care. The entrance-passage has a semi-elliptical
arch and fluted pilasters, and a thick (formerly external)
wall to left. The house retains pine doors of all periods,
from 6-panel moulded doors to plain boarded and battened
doors. The door to the cellar is early C18, with 2
ovolo-moulded panels. The cellar is below the left room of the
entrance range; it has a brick floor with diagonal gully. The
floor above it is of hardwood, well constructed of plain
joists of vertical section jointed to 2 transverse beams with
soffit tenons with diminished haunches, sand-blasted. The rear
bay of the service range incorporates at the left a fragment
of a low house of late medieval origin, incorporated in a
wider and taller range of c1600. This bay has a chamfered
axial beam with step stops, and chamfered joists of horizontal
section with step stops, jointed to it with low/central tenons
with housed soffits, characteristic of the C15. To right of it
is an early C19 quarter-turn stair with a handrail and stick
balusters at the top. The middle bay has a chamfered axial
beam, and plain joists of square section jointed to it with
soffit tenons with diminished haunches. The floor of the front
bay appears to be similar but plastered to the soffits of the
joists. The roof is of clasped purlin construction, with 4
principal rafters of unusual form, reduced at the purlins,
expanding to full depth at the apices. Inside the main roof of
the 2 rear bays is what appears to be another roof of poor
timber and simple construction; this is probably merely a
ceiling to improve the comfort of the 2 rooms to left of the
corridor, corridor itself having a flat ceiling.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this is a manorial site, recorded from 1493,
with a moat 70m to the SW. Morant wrote in 1768: `The mansion
house lies about half a mile out of the London road, on the
left hand going from Chelmsford. The building is large, and
shews great antiquity.' The will of John Peert of Arnold's
Hall, 1583, describes a large establishment of 11 rooms in
addition to outhouses, with lavishly furnished bedrooms on the
upper floor, and several musical instruments. The Peert or
Pert family continued to live at Arnold's Hall until 1735, and
were evidently people of wealth and status; one was High
Sheriff of Essex under James I, and the last was a Director of
the East India Company. It seems therefore that the major
house which Morant recorded as still present in 1768 was
wholly or mainly demolished in the late C18, and that the
present house represents either a part of it, which then
became a smart farmhouse, or a different house 70m NE of the
site of the demolished mansion which for a time existed
contemporaneously with it, perhaps a `home farm'.
(Morant P: The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex:
1768-: 44-5).

Listing NGR: TQ6314996803

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26584803

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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