Pigeon Cote

The Pigeon Cote is an early 19th-century two-storey tower structure built from fair-faced, buff-colored brick laid in English bond, with ashlar dressings.

The main elevation, which faces southwest, features a classical style with an ashlar plinth and a central doorway. This doorway has a round brick arch made of ashlar voussoirs and a keystone, framed by a projecting brick surround. Above the doorway is a matching window opening with an ashlar sill. The elevation is enhanced by brick corner pilasters topped with plain ashlar capital blocks, separated by a projecting dentil eaves course. The side and rear elevations are blind, with the pilasters wrapping around the corners and the dentil eaves course, which once supported timber guttering, running around the entire structure. Notably, the building is currently un-roofed.

Inside, the ground-floor room has an earth floor and fair-faced brick walls. The doorway features ashlar blocks in the jambs, with projecting wrought-iron hinge pins, a latch catch, and a bar stay. On either side of the doorway are lamp recesses, one of which is missing an ashlar stone sill, while the left recess has a hole broken through the brickwork. A pair of wrought-iron ‘L’ brackets is affixed to the rear wall for storing a loft ladder. The timber first floor is missing, but joist slots are present in the side walls to support it. The walls of the pigeon loft are white-washed up to floor level and contain six rows of alighting ledges and nesting boxes, totaling 296 boxes. Access to the boxes is provided through small gaps in the brickwork, leading into a cavity space within the wall.