Pear Tree Cottage

Pear Tree Cottage is probably a 15th-century farmhouse, with significant alterations in the early 17th century and subsequent additions. It is now a house. The building is timber framed, constructed using cruck technology, and filled with painted brick. It has a plain tile roof. The original two-bay hall has a cross-wing projecting to the right. The hall section is single-storey with an attic, while the cross-wing is two storeys high. The timber framing is irregular, composed of square and rectangular panels, extending from the cill to the wall plate, with long, straight tension braces on the cross-wing. The windows are also irregular. The hall has three late 19th-century casement windows set within the framing, with two prominent, gabled dormers added to the roof above. The cross-wing has a late 19th-century three-light casement window on each floor, and a fixed-light window to the right on the ground floor. A roughly central entrance has a 20th-century boarded door under a Tudor arch. There are two rebuilt red brick stacks: one on the ridge to the left, and another in front of the door to the left. The interior timber frame remains substantially intact, with three true arch-braced cruck trusses. The roof, originally thatched, was severely damaged by fire in 1984, destroying the upper parts of the cruck trusses. This section was subsequently rebuilt, raising the roof’s height.