3, Brook Street

This is a two-unit cottage dated 1686, located on Brook Street in Syston. It is notable as the earliest dated brick cottage in the county. The walls are built with distinctive Flemish bond brickwork, featuring blue headers. The roof is covered with Welsh slate, with a later 19th-century heightening. A cobble plinth is present on the gable wall. The cottage is two stories high and has a doorway slightly off-centre, now within a renewed wooden frame. It originally featured two three-light, horizontally sliding sash windows on each floor. Remnants of the original lower right-hand window head are visible, showing a reduced width and a straight vertical-brick head. The original left-hand lower window head is also evident, and the right-hand limit of its window remains as a straight joint. An elaborately moulded brick string course, detailed with dentils, runs along the front. A stone bearing the initials "N over I.I." is dated 1686. Gable end stacks are also present.