Birches and barn to the east

Smallholder's or squatter’s cottage, originating in the late-C18 or early-C19, and barn, mid-C19.

MATERIALS: the cottage is constructed from painted rubble stone and has a synthetic slate roof. The barn, also stone, has a tiled roof.

PLAN: the cottage occupies a rectangular footprint orientated east-west. It has a substantial external chimneystack on the west gable, adjacent to which is a small extension. A large, C20 outshut extension stands against the southern elevation.

The small barn stands a short distance to the east, separated by the access driveway. It is rectangular on plan, orientated east-west.

EXTERIOR: the cottage is a linear range of a single storey with an attic, with a pitched roof. The northern elevation is blind but for a small square window opening. The southern elevation is largely obscured by the large, mid-C20 kitchen extension* (excluded from the listing), above which rise two pitched dormers. On the right is a window, formed from an earlier door opening into the former animal shelter. A wide, stepped stone chimneystack stands external to the west gable, abutted by a single-storey extension beneath a pitched roof. The east elevation has a window on the ground floor; windows are irregularly sized and have C20 casements.

The barn is a simple pitched-roofed structure with a doorway and small square window in the southern elevation. There is a square taking-in door in the western gable end.

INTERIOR: as would be expected in such a humble building, interiors are plainly detailed. The principal room on the ground floor has a wide fireplace with a C19 cooking range, and two deep axial beams in the ceiling. In the eastern room, formerly an animal shelter, the joists to the inserted first floor are exposed. The winder stair is enclosed with simple panelling. On the first floor, there is a bedroom on either side of the central landing; that to the west has a cast iron fireplace. Both bedrooms have matchboarded ceilings with the single rank of purlins exposed.

In the barn, there are roughly-hewn joists supporting the floor above. The loft is ceiled with matchboarding.

• Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that C20 extension adjoining the south elevation of the cottage is not of special architectural or historic interest.