River Cottage

This is a medieval house, significantly altered in the 17th and 19th centuries. It is timber-framed on a rubble plinth, with brick and a plain-tile roof. A stone gable-end stack has a brick shaft. The building is a three-bay cruck-framed hall house range.

The exterior is single-storey with an attic. The entrance is in the gable facing south-east, with a stone stack and a brick addition to the right containing a doorway. The timber frame is weatherboarded. The left return side displays square and rectangular-panelled framing, two panels high, with brick and wattle infill, with a framed window opening masked to the left by a lean-to. The right return side features a 19th-century brick wall with an oak-framed mullion window and a dormer with a two-light casement. The rear gable-end has brickwork, with a two-light casement, with a brick segmental arch, at both floors.

The interior of bay one (north) contains a ground-floor lateral cross-frame with a door post, middle rail, chamfered arched door-head, slots for board infill, and simple large section floor joists. There is a single trenched-purlin roof with a diagonal ridge. The rafters to the south pitch were raised and restored. The north internal truss has two full cruck blades, diminishing backing-rafters, notched and pegged upper and lower collars, an inserted stud and middle rail, and a boarded door below the collar. A low tie beam with three posts to a sill plate with middle rails and doorway is also present. The attic is filled with wattle and daub, and the lower level with butt-jointed boards. The ground-floor frame is chamfered in bay one and moulded in bay two.

Bay two (central) has a pair of swept braces to the south with a lapped truss connection. This was formerly an open hall and now contains a 17th-century floor with a deep-chamfered bridging beam and cross-beam set on a deep-chamfered planted rail. The south internal truss has two full cruck blades, backing rafters, and notched and pegged upper and lower collars. It is partly infilled by a later stack with a 19th-century cast-iron attic-floor fireplace, and a ground-floor inglenook with a chamfered mantlebeam with ogee stops and a central check-mould, containing a 19th-century cast-iron range.

In bay three, there is an inserted 17th-century stone stack and a rubble bread oven to the south-west. A single swept brace with a lapped truss connection is present. The end truss is obscured by later finishes.

The house is a good example of the evolution of a small medieval rural house, largely unaltered since the 19th century.