The Cottages

The Cottages are a pair of late 18th-century terraced houses, originally two small cottages that have now been combined into a single dwelling. The houses are constructed of hammer-dressed stone with quoins, and have a stone slate roof with rebuilt chimneys and inserted roof lights. The plan is of two storeys and two cells.

The front elevation features a four-light stone mullion window to the left, and a three-light stone mullioned window to the right, with an entrance between them and a second entrance to the right. The first floor has a former eight-light stone mullioned window to the left, now partly blocked to form three two-light windows, and a five-light stone mullioned window to the right. All window and door dressings are replacements. The rear of the property includes a ground floor French window to the left and a three-light stone mullion window above. A two-storey extension is present to the right, with three-light windows to both the ground and first floors. The rear wall is rendered.

Inside, a central hall leads to a single room to the right, which contains timbers including chamfered cross beams, and a rebuilt fireplace. To the left is a former two-cell room, showing original ceiling timbers indicating the former location of a partition, and leading to the later extension. A ceiling beam in the hallway has a chamfer and chamfer stop. There are steep stone steps down to a small cellar, and a modern timber staircase to the first floor. The first-floor rooms have been remodelled. The roof space to the right hand side has exposed purlins.

The Cottages are designated at Grade II for their late 18th-century date, the intact nature of their main fabric, including stone slate roof and principal roof timbers, and for the clear visibility of the original fenestration pattern and division into two properties on the front elevation. While the rear alterations and additions are detrimental, they do not sufficiently detract from the special quality of the property, and replacement mullions have been balanced by the restoration of original window lights.