A Study of the Chequers Public House

in the village of Goldhanger

I have chosen The Chequers as it stands in the centre of Goldhanger, the parish which I studied for the first term of the local history course.   Signed   Janet White

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This machine readable version of Janet’s 1980-90s hand-written manuscript was created in 2024 using a new web-based convertor.

The architectural terms used have been set in italics and a glossary of the terms has been added at the end of the study - DWN

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A Study of Local History - Vernacular Architecture

An Introduction to Goldhanger - map ref. TL 905098

Goldhanger Is a small village situated about five miles North East of Maldon and set one field's length from the North Shore of the tidal estuary of the River Blackwater.

The lay-out of the centre of the village has changed little over the past 250 years. Three old roads known as "Streets" radiate from a wide space still called "The Square", on the south side of which stands the village pump which still works, the water from it been greatly prized by the village home-made wine makers.

The eastern side of The Square is taken up with the chequers Public House listed in 1769 as the only alehouse in Goldhanger.  It is clearly very much older than that, and for that reason I have chosen it for the study.

Goldhanger Hall, listed in the 18th and 19th century, is said to have stood behind the Chequers. Nothing remains of this building and one wonders if in fact it ever existed in that position. Would a house, grand enough to be called “Goldhanger Hall” be built behind a small and definitely not grand Yeoman’s house occupying prime position on The Square?  An uninterrupted view of the chickens, pigs and associated midden which were an obligatory feature of 18th century rural life, cannot have been a desirable feature of the Hall!

An introduction to the building now called “The Cheques”

The sign of the chequers is an ancient one and has been found on houses exhumed in Pompeii.  Originally it is said to have indicated that draughts and backgammon were played within, much like today's pool and darts.  The first recorded licensee of the Goldhanger Chequers was one Edward Smith who held the license in 1969 with Janet Jackson and Steven Rice standing surety.

Although the chequers has been an Ale House and latterly a Public House for at least 226 years the house would have been built as a lesser yeoman's house and it is on this mediaeval building that the study is based.

Exterior of the house

The entire exterior of the house has been rendered and a number of extensions have been built over the years. At one stage, probably the 1800 century, almost the entire back of the hall of the mediaeval house was removed and an extension built to double it's size. This extended part has a peg tiled “cat-slide” roof.  The remaining outbuildings attached to the rear of the building were built as stables with cobbled floors and hay-loft above. The cobbled floors have now been removed and the building converted to a kitchen with freezer room above.

All roofs are peg tiled with the exception of one small outbuilding which is state. The roof of the cross-wing is pitched at an angle of 53o and, since the roof was not constructed to take thatch this suggests it was an early tiled roof.  The roof of the hall has a less steep pitch but examination of the roof timbers suggests that it has been jacked up; probably to allow an upper floor to be inserted.

The cross-wing, at the southern end of the house, has the appearance that it should be jettied and examination of the internal timbers produced two large empty mortices to take a bracket, so the cross-wing was an under-built jetty.

An unremarkable chimney stack is set forward of the ridge in the hall. Examination of the stack in the roof showed that the top part had been rebuilt in more recent times, whilst the lower part is original late 16th century to mid 17th century with hand-made bricks.

There is no signs of a Well at the rear of the house but the customary 10ft from the back door would see it beneath the floor of the gent's loo, so who knows?  However, there is a spring, now capped with a pump only the road's width from the front door so this may well have been used by the house.

Interior of the house

The original house had a two bay jettied cross-wing of the lower end, cross-passages and hall, so many alterations and additions have been made to the original house.  It is now extremely difficult to say with any certainly, what form the hall took.  In spite of many visits and much "poking around" in bedrooms and bars, I still have no idea whether there was a second cross wing to accommodate the parlour or if it was an in line hall and parlour.  No doubt someone with more experience would be able to tell but for the time being I have to admit defeat.

Cross-wing and cross-passage

The house is entered by the front door into the cross-passage which gives access to the one-time buttery and pantry at the low end.  The doorways to these rooms are in the correct position, side-by-side with the doors opening against the dividing wall, but the doorways have rather crudely applied modern architraves.

The first service room, fronting the road, has timber of poor quality, now much damaged by the attention of the death watch beetle.  The carpentry is very simple with few pegs and no chamfering on the exterior of the house has the appearance that it was once jettied and, on examining the first stud in from the present front, two large empty mortices were found which would have taken a bracket for the jetty.

The second service room, to the rear of the house showed nothing of interest, all the walls and the ceiling having been plastered in modern times.  One would have expected the stairs to have led up from this room but nothing remains of then and the stairs are want on the opposite side of the cross-passage.

The first floor has two rooms, the front one having nothing of interest, again being plastered.  The second room has two jowls and pegged wall plates.  The wall plate is chamfered and has step-stops which pre-date lambs-tongue-stops.  Again, the timber is of poor quality, the un-chamfered timbers being extremely wavy edged.

The Hall

The ground floor of the original hall section of the house can be clearly seen and separated from the much later partitions and extensions.  The back door is still in it's original position at the end of the cross-passage.  Being parallel to the door, at right-angles to the cross-passage there is part of the brick ground sill of the hall.

The sill has been cut into lo give access to the later extensions but continues again, clearly showing the back of the mediaeval hall.  At one point, about 6 ft above the ground sill, there is a very small exposed section of side girt, about 9 inches long, but the rest is covered by the modern bar.

There is a brick five-place backing onto the cross-passage and, although there is much modern brick infill, the original size and shape of the fire-place can be clearly seen.  The timber mantle beam is in place but there is evidence that there was spit-jack, as would be expected in such a modest house.  The main bean is chamfered and finished with slightly crudely executed lambs-tonque-stops.

The first floor of the hall has timbers of the same inferior quality, the wall plate has very wavy edges and no chamfers.  On the end wall there is a filled-in window with hollow chamfered mullions; there are marks in the timber at the top of the window which could be shutter grooves, but a combination of black paint and cracks in the timber made this uncertain.  The presence of this window shows that this wall was at the end of the original house, but I am unsure as to whether it was a continuous hall or if there was a cross-wing at this end of the house, which fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in-line

The roof of the hall has, I'm sure, been "jacked up" at some time, possibly to allow the sub-section of a floor.  Evidence to support this can be seen on the wall fronting the road where the studs are straighter and of better quality timber, and also in the roof where the pitch of the rafters has been altered.  The angle of the pitch of the roof of the cross- wing is 53o, but that of the hall is less steep, suggesting that the walls have been raised.

The roof space

The roof timbers are in reasonable condition, very clean and with no sign of sooting.  The main timbers  are of oak but everything else appears to be elm, and this too is perfectly preserved and very clean.

There are two wattle and daub partitions, one separating the hall from the cross-wing (photos-1&2) and the other part way down the present hall[way] above a tie beam (photo-3) suggesting that there was a matching cross wing at that end of the house.  The joists at that end of the house show saw marks so it certainly has been rebuilt or extensively repaired, probably in the 18th or 19th century.

The daub on the cross-wing partition has a strange, almost damp feel about it and when a broken edge is rubbed with the fingers, it has a "silky” feel, almost like rubbing talc between the fingers.  My explanation is that, as a cost-cutting exercise, the builders used mud from Goldbanger creek at the end of Fish Street, which at the time was only 300 or so yards away.  The hygroscopic effect of the salt in the mud would explain the damp feeling and the grey takc-like powder has exactly the appearance of dried river mud.  The straw used with the mud had a fair sprinkling of weeds amongst it but in those pre-herbicide days, I suppose that is to be expected.

The daub used on the other partition (photo-3) is of better quality, harder, more brown in colour and without the river mud qualities, which suggests a later date.  The wattle is still as it was when installed with its bindings intact (photo-3).

The cross-wing has a simple Crown Post roof but the post is now obscured by a late partition.  The timber used is elm and is clean and in good condition.

The hall has a Side Pulin roof which is a mixture of oak and elm, some of which is in. poor condition.  The Side Pulins are badly "bowed” and I think the rafters show signs of the roof having been raised, explaining the shallow pitch of the roof compared to the cross-wing.

Conclusions

The Chequers is a mediaeval house built in two phases and may be in three. The cross-wing is the oldest part of the building. The Crown Post construction of the roof suggests a date of before 1550, as do the step stops of of the chamfers.  A date abound 1500 is offered

The hall is of slightly later construction.  The brick chimney appears to be original to roof height, suggesting the latter half of the 16th century, as does the use of lambs-tongue-stops. The cross-passage has been retained in its original position, also suggesting a date of before 1600.  But the Hollow Chamfer Mullions on the filled-in window would be around 1600.  A date of 1550-1600 is offered.

The house appears to have been built "On a shoestring”.  Elm has been used instead of oak for many of the roof timbers; in an area in which elm was plentiful, it would have been the cheaper option.  The timber is generally of inferior quality with knotted wavy edged examples on the studs and wall plates.  This is particularly noticeable when compared to the high quality and finish of the timber used in Falcons Hall, a larger house of similar date, about half a mile from the Cheques.

The standard of carpentry was basic with only the bare necessities of pegs being used and little attempt at decorative finishing of the lambs tonque stops and the mullions being crudely executed.  The use of river mud and for the daub also also suggests cost-cutting as it was readily available, easy to collect and free!  All this being said, the house is still warm and dry and functioning for the purpose for which it was built almost five centuries ago.  A comfortable home.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Trevor, Joan, Paul and Zoie Jones for allowing me to wonder freely around their house with camera and tape measure, generally making a nuisance of myself.  My thanks to Anne Padfield for joining me on a visit to point me in the right direction and to my husband Paul for producing the diagrams.

 

possible original arrangement of the Chequers                                     possible original floor plan

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A Glossary of the architectural terms included in this Study

Architrave

decorative moulding or frame around a door or window.

cat-slide

a roof that continues down below the main eaves to cover a larger area without increasing the ridge. The pitch of the roof can be changed to stretch the roof over an extension.

Cross-passage

the passage that separates the service area from the hall.

Cross-wing

section of a house roofed at right angles to the adjacent main range.

Crown post

upright timber standing on tie beam supporting a collar purlin.

Daub

A sticky mix of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung, straw, etc.

see: Wattle & daub below.

Hall

1. large room and main space used in mediaeval times for public gatherings, etc.

2. the space just inside the front entrance of a building.

In Janet’s study the 2nd meaning is used only once and hall[way] has been added.

Jettied

&   Jetty   Cantilevered overhang of one storey over the storey below it.

Jowl

expansion of the inner face of the top of a bay post to accommodate housings

for wall plate and tie beam.

Purlin

longitudinal timber set in the plane of a roof slope and supporting common rafters.

Low end

part of the house used for service rooms or of the hall towards that end.

mediaeval

connected with the Middle Ages from about AD 1000 to AD 1450.

Mullion

window with vertical posts or timbers in the opening without glass.

“Hollow Shallow Mullions” have concave chamfered window posts.

Side Girt

a horizontal structural member in a framed wall to provide lateral support.

Spit-jack

a device for rotating meat for roasting.

Stops

 

decorative endings of a chamfer on a beam

to return the timber to a square section.

Stud

subsidiary vertical timber, in a framed wall or partition.

Tie beam

main transverse timber connecting the tops of walls.

Vernacular

architecture

local or regional construction using traditional materials and resources in the area.

Wattle

& daub

a woven lattice of wooden strips stuck together with wet soil, clay, sand,

animal dung, straw, etc. used for thousands of years.

Wall plate

horizontal timber at top of wall on which roof timbers, rafters or joists rest.

Yeoman

officer of the parish, freeholder, servant of a noble household, etc.

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