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

• Wikidata Q26584803

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Recommended Books

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)