Marlbrook Cottages

Marlbrook Cottages is a house that has been divided into two dwellings, dating from around 1400, with alterations and additions from the 17th and 19th centuries. It was restored in the late 20th century. The building is timber-framed with rendered infill on a rubble base, partly roughcast, and features machine-tiled roofs with a brick stack at the rear of the main ridge and at the east end. It is a cruck hall house consisting of two, possibly once three, 15-foot square bays aligned east to west, with the easternmost bay rebuilt or added in the 17th century, along with an intersecting cross-wing of two framed bays at the east end. The structure is single-storey with an attic that includes dormers.

The framing includes a complete cruck truss that survives at the west end, with two more recorded to be inside. The main elevations were refaced in the 17th century and feature three rows of square panels. The cross-wing framing is not visible from the outside. On the south front elevation, the windows are mainly 20th-century casements. The original range has a 3-light window, a 4-light window with a cambered head, and a single-light window on the ground floor. Above these are three gabled dormers, two with 2-light windows and one with a 3-light window. There are two ledged and battened doors with lean-to porches supported by straight brackets. The cross-wing gable end features a 3-light ground floor window with a cambered head and a 3-light attic window, along with a small ledged and battened door at the west end. A rubble lean-to addition is attached to the rear of the main range, and there is also a rubble wing on the east side with two shuttered windows and a pair of doors in its south elevation.

The interior has only been partly inspected, and the two other recorded cruck trusses were not visible. Inside, there are some stop-chamfered 17th-century main ceiling beams and two winder staircases.