Description

INGATESTONE AND FRYERNING
TL60SW
723-1/2/332
20/02/76 BACK LANE, Fryerning
(South East side)
Murcocks
(Formerly Listed as:
BRENTWOOD FRYERNING
Murcocks farmhouse

II

House. Medieval, altered in early C19 and C20. Timber-framed, partly clad with red brick in Flemish bond, partly plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Now a straight range of 5 bays facing NW, but comprising (1) a 2-bay hall range with a late C16 stack in the left, 'low end' bay against the front wall (2) a 2-bay parlour/solar cross-wing to right (3) a C17 extension to right of it, with a C17 external stack beyond (4) one bay to left of the main stack, on the site of the original service bay, but much altered in the early C19, with an early C19 internal stack. C19/20 external stack to rear right of cross-wing. CIS/19 single-storey lean-to extension at rear left, weatherboarded and roofed with handmade and machine-made red clay tiles, and C20 lean-to extension to rear of it, plastered and roofed with corrugated iron. Slate-roofed lean-to to right of it.
2 storeys. 4-window range of early Cig sashes with square panes, asymmetrically arranged, the ground-floor windows
having segmental brick arches. C20 door at front of C20 porch with flat roof. Hipped roof of low pitch. Front and left elevations of brick, and the right elevation to the stack; the remainder plastered. One similar early C19 sash on the ground floor of the rear elevation, to right of the lean-tos. INTERIOR: wide wood-burning hearth in hall facing to right, with 0.33m jambs, a seat recess in the rear amb, 2
rectangular salt recesses at the back, each of L-plan, and a richly moulded mantel beam of c1490; some internal repair. Chamfered axial beam in hall, joists plastered to the soffits. In the left wall of the cross-wing the ground-floor studs have been removed, but the mortices show that they were at 0.96m centres, indicating an early origin; the middle storey posts and rear left corner post are replaced by brick piers to first-floor height. Binding beam and joists plastered, but the levels suggest that the joists have been replaced in the front bay, remaining in the rear bay. The upper part of the left middle storey post is exposed, jowled, arched brace severed, wallplate severed immediately to rear for a doorway. The

hearth at the right end has 0.33m jambs and a curved internal
surface, an original cambered relieving beam, and a C20 mantel
beam replacing a former depressed brick arch. The bricks are
C17, and one above the hearth incorporates a fragment of a
clay tobacco pipe of C17 type. The floor appears to have been
rebuilt in the C18; only one beam is exposed, chamfered with
runout stops, and false joists. At the left end bay the floor
seems to have been rebuilt also; only one beam is exposed,
lightly beaded at the arrises, of C18/early C19 type. On the
first floor all the walls have been raised and the roof
rebuilt, re-using rafters from the medieval hall and
cross-wing. Some are heavily smoke-blackened, trenched for the
collars of a crownpost roof, and one retains an original
nailhead peg, confirming the early origin indicated by the
widely-spaced studding. Substantial parts of this medieval
timber structure remain in situ, but mutilated by early C19
alterations and plastered. The upper part of the main stack
has been rebuilt in the early C19, and extended upwards. The
present roof is of clasped purlin construction, the rafters
butted and nailed, of slightly less than normal tile pitch; an
earlier hip of similar construction remains in situ one bay
from the right end.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this holding is recorded as Morecocks and
Murcocks in the Petre archives. The 1556 survey records a
house 28 feet long, 19 feet wide, and 9 feet high to the
eaves, with a tiled roof, and a holding of 8 acres, apparently
conforming with the hall and cross-wing. The house is
illustrated in the Walker map of 1601 as a low hall range with
a central door, a brick chimney to right of it, and a window
at each end, a 2-storey cross-wing to the right, and beyond it
a small extension terminating in an external stack. This
closely corresponds with the present structure, except that
the roofs have been raised. The house is shown divided into 3
cottages in the OS maps 1874 and 1894.
(Essex Record Office: Edwards AC: D.DP M.170: 8; The Walkers
of Haningfield Surveyors and Mapmakers Extraordinary: 1984-:
PLATE XXXVI).

Listing NGR: TL6412500336

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26584819

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]