Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 1976: summary

Historic Building Recording at Pond Mead, High Street, Widdington, Essex:September 2023
by Sarah Veasey (with contributions from Dr Pip Parmenter)

Date report completed: September 2023
Location: Pond Mead, High Street, Widdington, Essex
Map reference(s): TL 53809 31893
File size: 3649 kb
Project type: Historic building recording
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. A programme of historic building recording was carried out by Colchester Archaeological Trust at Pond Mead, High Street, Widdington, Essex. Pond Mead is an expansive property, which combines timber-frame and brick construction, with an Arts and Crafts architectural style. Pebble-dash render, multiple ridge-lines and exposed timber-framing are just some of the techniques used that were popularised in by the movement in the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. Despite this outward appearance of a late 19th/early 20th century building, Pond Mead appears to have earlier origins, with a building depicted on the plot on mapping dating to 1777, although it is unclear how much of this earlier building survives in the structure of Pond Mead.

The survival of original Arts and Crafts design is not limited to the exterior of the building, multiple interior features survive within Pond Mead. These include multiple original doors, nine fire surrounds of differing grandeur, a parquet floor and staircases.

On the exterior of the property the initials VMMD are embossed in the render of a gable end. The electoral register from 1918 records a woman with the name Violet Mary Moore-Dillon residing at Pond Mead, likely the person responsible for orchestrating the Arts and Crafts redesign of Pond Mead.