Playford

Playford is a cottage that likely dates from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. It features a timber frame with brick and plaster infill, a stack at the junction of two ranges, and thatched roofs. The building has an L-plan layout consisting of two two-bay ranges; one runs north-west to south-east facing the road, while the other returns from the north-west end and includes a stone rear external stack in the angle.

On the south-west elevation, which faces the road, there is a two-storey gable front on the left with two late 19th-century casement windows on the ground floor. This section has angle struts to the beam at the first-floor level and an inclined tie-beam that connects the asymmetrical eaves. The right part of this elevation has one storey and an attic, featuring a wrought iron mid-19th-century casement window beneath a segmentally-headed casement in a thatched eyebrow, and a mid-20th-century door immediately to the right under a thatched canopy. The roof is half-hipped on the right side.

The south-east elevation includes an early 19th-century glazing-bar sash window on the first floor of the left two-storey range, positioned above a canted late 19th-century bay window with six panes on each facet. The gable front on the right has a circa 1900 casement window under the half-hipped apex, along with another late 19th-century canted bay window on the ground floor. A lean-to early 20th-century extension with a hipped tiled roof at the rear surrounds the rear stack, which is visible beneath the exposed rear gables of the two ranges. The frame of the cottage is made of thin, uneven scantling, with three panels high in the projecting range and two in the other range.

This cottage is uniquely planned and detailed, retaining much of its original fenestration, which has remained largely unaltered in this century. It exhibits characteristics of a prestigious timber-framed farmhouse but is executed in a miniature form, enhanced by its thatched roofs.