Park Style

Park Style

A cottage originating in the 16th or 17th century with subsequent phases of development. The building is timber-framed, partly rebuilt in stone, with stone chimneystacks that have brick to their upper parts, entirely rendered, and roofed in slate. It stands in a large plot set back from the west side of the road, with the historic range linear and orientated south-west to north-east.

The principal elevation faces south-east and presents a symmetrical composition of three wide bays. The central front door is half-glazed with two lights, with an applied slate date-stone above reading '1791'. To the left is a window with a pair of casements with horizontal glazing bars, and to the right a glazed door adapted from a window. The first floor contains three window openings beneath the eaves, each with pairs of casements. The roof is pitched with external stepped chimneystacks on both gable ends. The north-east chimney has a large curved projection at its base forming a bread oven with a stone slate roof. The rear elevation facing north-west is largely obscured by a 20th-century extension (excluded from the listing), though a window with a pair of casements survives on the left-hand side. The north-east gable is blind, while the south-west gable contains a four-light fixed casement on the ground floor and a pair of casements on the first floor.

The interior is a single-cell deep with a room at either end and a lobby, WC and stair occupying the central bay. The insertion of the stair, which appears to be a 20th-century construction, necessitated truncation of the spine beam, and the joists in this bay have undergone modification.

The doorway into the northernmost room has an architrave with a depressed arched head, and the lower jambs have been infilled to straighten a bulbous opening. The threshold has been cut away. The corner-posts are jowled, and the timber-framing consists of three studs with mid-rails at varying heights in each bay and a floor plate now sitting above floor level due to the floor having been lowered. A panel within the rear wall is infilled with cleaved oak wattle. The spine beam is a wide timber with very deep chamfers and diagonal stops; a void mortise in the northern end suggests reconfiguration. The joists are exposed and have been modified in the northern corner indicating the former location of a winder stair. A stone inglenook fireplace, appearing partially rebuilt, is present with a bread oven inserted to one side; it retains a deep, slightly arched timber lintel.

The southernmost ground-floor room is an addition to the original building, so the timber-framed dividing wall with the central bay was originally external; this wall contains a blocked opening on the left-hand side. The external walls of this room show no evidence of timber framing. A deep beam supports the ceiling, whose joists have been replaced. A blocked stair opening exists in the ceiling adjacent to the rear wall, and the sloped scar of a stair marks the plasterwork. The fireplace is modern.

On the first floor, timber framing continues in the two northernmost rooms. Central queen-post trusses are exposed; their tie beams have been cut into, probably to create openings between rooms prior to insertion of the stair. The principal rafters have vacant niches for trenched purlins, which have been replaced on the north side. On the south, the roof has been raised, with the principal rafters indicating its original pitch.

A varied collection of ledge-and-plank and four-panelled internal doors survives, some with historic strap hinges.

The outshut extension on the north-west elevation is not included in the listing as it is not of special architectural or historic interest.