Platt Bridge Cottage

Platt Bridge Cottage is a farmhouse, later divided into two cottages and now a house, dating from the mid to late 16th century, with later additions and alterations. It is timber framed with painted brick and rendered infill, set on a painted brick plinth, and has a machine tile roof. Originally, the house may have been of baffle-entry plan, with three framed bays. The front has a continuous jetty supported by three elaborately carved brackets, originally likely more in number; a moulded bressumer and exposed bridging beam and joist ends are also visible. The square framing panels are two high to the first floor and two or three high to the ground floor. The rear elevation shows four square panels, with two below and two above a middle rail, which has a carved bracket to the right of centre. A queen-strut truss with projecting double-purlin ends is visible at the left gable end, while the right gable end has concrete tile hanging. Four late 19th-century casement windows are located directly below the eaves, and five are on the ground floor; the second or third from the left may be in the position of a former doorway. The current entrance is to the rear, through a 20th-century door under a contemporary gabled porch. A red brick ridge stack is located to the left of centre, with a recessed section and a rebuilt top in early 20th-century red brick. A two-storey, square-panelled timber-framed lean-to is attached to the left gable end.

Inside, the left ground-floor room features a richly moulded cross-beam ceiling and plain flat joists. A red brick inglenook fireplace has a chamfered wooden lintel, with woven panels visible to the rear wall. The centre room also has a moulded cross-beam ceiling as far as the centre cross beam, which reveals sawn-off studs indicating a former partition. Deep-chamfered spine beams and plain joists are on the opposite side, and also to the right room. The inglenook fireplace in the centre room has a segmental brick arch and a bread oven. A timber-framed cross wall dividing the centre and right rooms features a plank door with pointed strap hinges to the right. The timber frame is exposed to other walls, including the right gable end. A staircase is located to the right of the stack in the centre room, with visible stepping to the first floor. Wide-boarded oak floorboards are found on the first floor, and a queen-strut roof in three unequal bays is above, with the first tie beam from the right moulded to the right side; it was formerly open to the ridge, and the present ceiling is an insertion. The lean-to attached to the left gable end incorporates a piece of reused 17th-century oak panelling and a plank door with pointed strap hinges. A 20th-century brick lean-to at the rear on the right, and a contemporary flat-roofed extension attached to the right gable end, are not of special architectural interest. A datestone (1558) is located in the garden to the rear.