Lilly'S Cottage

Lilly's Cottage is a house that was originally built in the 15th century and later extended in the mid-16th century. The left wing was rebuilt in the 17th century and altered in the 19th century, with all parts refurbished in the 1950s. The structure features a timber frame on a rubble stone plinth, with the left side and far end of the left wing rebuilt. It has a thatched roof and brick chimney shafts located to the left of the 16th-century wing and at the front corner of the far end of the left wing.

The house is arranged in an L-plan and has two storeys. The 16th-century wing on the right consists of three bays and showcases fine close studding with curved braces and colourwashed render infill. On the north side, just below the eaves line, there are pairs of small wind-eyes for ventilating the upper storey. The windows on this side are irregular 20th-century casements, including a large four-light wooden casement on the ground floor left, a two-light casement to the right of centre, three single metal lights between the studs on the first floor left, and a two-light horizontal sash in the centre of the first floor. The ground floor windows feature wooden glazing bars. The south side has 20th-century barred wooden casements, one semi-dormer to the left, and remnants of a small original three-light window on the first floor.

The 17th-century wing has large rectangular panels of brick infill, with a three-light horizontal sash window at the front and a 20th-century door leading to a cross passage on the right side, which is topped with a 20th-century thatched hood. Inside, there is a cruck truss with a yoked apex to the right of the cross passage, a plastered wall in the cross passage with graffiti dated March 31, 1692, featuring the initials of Richard Lilly and small drawings of hands, stars, a tower, and a steeple. The 16th-century wing has heavy floor joists, a heavy stud partition between the left ground floor bays, and a timber-framed fire hood between the right bays, along with altered roof trusses.

Lilly's Cottage was the home of William Lilly, a notorious court astrologer who lived from 1602 to 1681. An inventory of the goods belonging to a William Lillye from 1635, likely related to this house, is preserved in the Leicester Record Office and has been published in M W Barley's "The English Farmhouse and Cottage."