Maltkiln Cottage

Maltkiln Cottage is a house dating from 1715, built of brick in Flemish bond with the lower courses rendered and colour-washed. At the time of the resurvey, there was no roof covering. The house features a two-room central entrance-hall plan and stands two storeys high with five symmetrical bays. The central bay projects slightly forward and includes a recessed half-glazed door with an overlight, all set beneath a rubbed-brick flat arch. The ground floor has 12-pane sash windows in flush wooden architraves, also beneath rubbed-brick flat arches, although all ground-floor openings were boarded up during the resurvey. Above the door, there is a painted carved stone tablet with a moulded round-arched recessed panel inscribed with an "N" and a pair of interlocking hearts in the centre, while a rough band below may represent an erasure of "T S 1715". The house has a deep modillion brick eaves cornice, with some damage to the upper mouldings of the central bay. The gables are raised and brick-coped, featuring a brick band that forms a raking cornice on the left return. The end stacks have been rebuilt, and the right return has a plain boarded attic door with wrought-iron strap hinges beneath a timber lintel. The rear displays a stepped and cogged brick eaves cornice.

Inside, there is a good open-well staircase with a ramped corniced handrail, pulvino corniced string, plain newels, and bulb-on-vase balusters. The stair hall and first-floor rooms have bold cyma recta plaster cornices, though somewhat damaged. The doors and windows feature architraves, and there are boxed-in spine beams on the ground floor. The roof is an 8-bay clasped purlin oak structure with arched collars. This house is noted for its stylish rural character and retains many original details, though it was empty and in a state of decay at the time of the resurvey.