Burne House And Burne Cottage

Pair of estate cottages, built for the Duke of Sutherland's Trentham Estate in 1861. Designed by the architect George Devey. Both are of 2 storeys and composed of coursed stone rubble and brick in English garden wall bond with timber framing, tile hanging and a plain tiled roof. This is an informal composition that came to typify the English domestic revival style with the two attached dwellings complementing one another in their individual use of materials and motifs and differently proportioned gables. The pair is linear in plan with two small cross wings breaking the roof line. All windows are mullioned casements with horizontal glazing bars unless otherwise described.

Burne House to the left is the larger of the two, built of coursed rubble and brick to the ground storey with timber framing above. The front façade is of two bays with projecting gable. There is a central 2 light casement with a moulded sill below the tile hung apex of the gable to the first floor. At ground floor the porch, formerly open, is now infilled, but the timber framework survives intact. To the left of the porch is a small single light fire window. A large lateral stack stands to the left of the gable with a tall brick shaft with decorative oversailing brick courses.

Burne Cottage to the right is defined by a pronounced break in the line of the roof pitch reflecting the party wall. This dwelling is also half timbered with a stone and brick ground floor, now painted white. The gable is larger and wider but shallower than that to Burne House, with a greater area of decorative tile hanging and axial brick stack. The front is essentially of 3 irregular bays: a square cut bay with tiled pitched roof and 4 light casement to the left ground floor; a 3 and single light casement windows to the gable centrally at first floor; and a doorway and two later casements to the right ground floor. This last bay was originally an open deep porch with the first floor right reveal gable end extending above. Again, the timber framing of the porch survives.

The left reveal is of two bays with a jettied gable to the right with a central 4 light casement at first and ground floor and date plaque beneath the upper window. The jetty bressummer is finely carved and moulded stone corbels support the curved jetty brackets. The single storey bay to the left has a 3 light casement.

The right reveal is of one bay with 3 light casement to first floor and later casement to the infilled porch area at ground floor. The gable is tile hung.

The composition is interrupted by a central single storey extension running from the centre between the two cross wings at the rear. The original rear door to Burne Cottage has been bricked in, although the stone relieving arch remains in the brickwork; access is now gained through a later door in the original porch. There is a 2 light casement to the left of the original doorway and a single light to the gable. The cross wing gable to the rear of Burne House is smaller yet more pronounced with 2 light casement to the first floor and later 20th century window to ground. There is a smaller brick lateral stack to the left of the gable, now sealed behind the extension.

Interior features include the bressummer in the front room and plain 4 panelled doors with inset chamfer to rails and stiles throughout the house. A blocked-in window behind the rear extension still retains its diamond leaded light, suggesting that the windows were originally similarly leaded as shown in Devey's working drawings.

George Devey (1820-1886) was one of the pioneers of English domestic revival architecture. His work proved to be extremely influential on later architects such as Shaw, Nesfield and Voysey. Devey's work for the Duke of Sutherland at Trentham included a school, just to the south of the cottages, and a lodge. He also worked on the Duke's other estates at Cliveden, Lilleshall and Dunrobin Castle.

These cottages survive as a fine example of the work of George Devey, one of the pioneers of the English domestic revival style. This is an informal composition utilising a range of building materials and vernacular motifs. The playful combination of stone and brickwork, particularly the irregular stone relieving arches to the windows, alludes to successive building phases. The building represents the earliest period of this architectural style, which would continue to be influential throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite some alterations the composition is still clearly readable, and no substantial parts of the original fabric have been removed.