Nos. 1-2 The Hollow

Nos. 1 and 2 The Hollow, Mickleover

Nos. 1 and 2 The Hollow are part of an evolved range of three dwellings dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. No. 2 incorporates earlier fabric, dated by dendrochronology to the late 14th and late 16th centuries. Both buildings have undergone further alteration in the late 20th century.

The buildings are constructed of red brick, rising from a shallow rendered plinth, with a blue clay tile roof covering and brick ridge chimneys.

The two dwellings are arranged in a linear plan, possibly on the footprint of, or adapted from earlier buildings, of which No. 2 may retain significant components.

No. 1 is a two-bay, two-storey house with an off-centre doorway featuring a pilastered doorcase and rectangular overlight set beneath a shallow gabled hood. Flanking the doorway are tripartite sash windows below shallow segmental-arched heads. Above are three first-floor windows with lintels below a dog-toothed eaves course. No. 2 is of two bays and two storeys, with an off-centre doorway set within a plain pilastered doorcase and below a shallow cornice. Flanking the doorway and its six-panel door are three-light horizontal sliding sash frames with glazing bars, set beneath deep stone lintels. Above are eight-over-eight pane sash frames with stone lintels set at eaves level. The bricks in the upper floor walling are of a different size and are laid to a different bond to those below, indicating the extent to which the building was raised in the late 18th or early 19th century. At the left-hand end of the frontage is a straight joint with a small padstone at its base. The rear elevations of both houses have been altered. No. 1 has a variety of 20th-century window and door frames and a shallow flat-roofed two-storey extension to the centre of the rear elevation. A section of the left-hand corner and parts of the return wall are formed with narrow bricks which appear earlier than the remaining areas of both front and rear elevations. No. 2 has a painted render coat, 20th-century joinery, and a single-storey lean-to extension to the right-hand bay.

The interior of No. 1 has been largely remodelled, but retains a stick baluster stair with waisted finials to the newel posts and a cellar with a shallow vault formed from narrow bricks which appear to pre-date those of the exterior elevations. No. 2 retains a chamfered and stopped spine beam and exposed joists to the right-hand bay and a recessed hearth set behind a short bressumer. The hearth surround has stone jambs with corbelled heads supporting a deep lintel. The hearth itself is a 20th-century insert. At first-floor level are the exposed surviving sections of two roof trusses, the height of which corresponds to the earlier roof height indicated by the lower brick section of the front elevation. The most complete survival is the truss at the head of the central stair, formed from substantial principal rafters morticed into the surviving section of a tie beam. The principal rafters are trenched to accommodate now-removed single purlins and associated wind braces, and empty mortices in the inner faces of the principal rafters indicate the position of an original collar beam. The truss, described by the owners as incorporating cruck blades, was formerly closed and retains a single panel of wattle and daub. Its apex is trenched to receive a diagonally-set ridge purlin, removed when the roof was raised. Fragments of a second truss, including the head of a jowelled wall post and sections of a diagonal brace, a tie beam and a principal rafter, are exposed in the end wall of the same room.