Listen
Druggles & Struggles
Just in front of the Church is an early sixteenth century timber framed house with cross wings at each end. Nos 26-28 Chipping Hill are vernacular houses of typical Essex cross-wing form. No 26 is a mid-fourteenth century hall and cross-wing. No 28 is a late fourteenth century or early fifteenth century cross-wing which originally served a now demolished hall.
They were built as a single house around 1500 which was later divided into three dwellings but eventually returned to being a single dwelling. They would originally have been an encroachment onto the green, as were a row of cottages in front of this building which were demolished in the 1930s. The workmen got a bonus for making the site presentable in time for an important wedding, which they did by spreading the rubble on the green to form a new drive to the church. The original drive past the houses going down top The Old Forge has now grassed over.
​
The postcard view below shows the cottages with the lost cottages in the foreground.
Sources: Janet Gyford; Tom Henderson.
