Kings End Cottage

Kings End Cottage is a house of late 18th and early 19th century date with 19th century additions, located at Kings End Road, Powick. It is built of red brick with a grey slate hipped roof and side stacks.

The building is a double-fronted, double-depth house with a central entrance hall, two floors and a cellar. The central door features an arched fanlight and a six-panelled raised and fielded door, reinforced internally with iron straps. It is set in a moulded and panelled arched architrave. A Victorian open porch of red brick with sandstone details has been built in front of this door, with round-headed arches to the front and either side, supported on chamfered brick pillars set on a tapering brick plinth. To the left and right of the porch are canted bay windows with slate roofs. A simple dentilated eaves course sits immediately below the hipped slate roof, which has a single stack to the right and two stacks to the left.

The west elevation has a Victorian or Edwardian lean-to conservatory with arched windows on a dwarf wall. A two-storey lean-to extension to the rear has a plank door on the ground floor and houses steps descending to an external cellar entrance. The rear elevation has undergone some alterations on the ground floor, with three modern windows and French doors inserted into an earlier arch-headed opening. On the first floor to the east are an infilled arch-headed window and a small arch-headed single window. A brick-built single-storey wing projects at right angles to the house on the west and is thought to have been an early outbuilding. It is roofed with plain clay tiles and features a full-height gable-end chimney stack and an early panelled door with two glazed upper lights. The fenestration throughout is a mix of two-pane and eight-over-eight horned sliding sashes.

The interior retains most of its original joinery, including raised and fielded panelled doors, reeded and moulded doorcases, deep skirtings, alcove cupboards with panelled doors, and an original staircase with a swept and ramped banister featuring pairs of turned, vase and block rails and carved tread ends. Additional features include an early bell pull system, a polychrome encaustic tiled floor in the entrance hall, and a small cast iron fireplace on the ground floor.

The vaulted brick cellar has two large chambers, a well and a smaller barrel-vaulted room with a panelled door and four original brick-built storage tanks, believed to have been used for storing perishable food items. The majority of the original and early interior features survive despite some losses.

To the front of the property is a dwarf wall with wrought iron railings. To the rear is a walled garden retaining its enclosing walls. To the west of the property is a ha-ha separating the grounds from the adjacent farmland. There are a number of brick garden buildings and greenhouses which are not of historical importance.

The house is first documented on the 1848 tithe map, when it is believed to have been in existence for some time. It was partially updated during the Victorian period with the addition of the porch, bay windows and extensions to the domestic accommodation. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw an increase in the construction of houses as the rising middle classes sought to emulate the elegance of the grander mansions of the aristocracy. With its graceful front door and strongly symmetrical façade, Kings End Cottage exemplifies this tradition. As a late Georgian rural residence located near Worcester, it reflects the aspirations of its original owner. Although there have been later 19th century alterations, these do not detract from the building's interest, and it remains a particularly complete example of its type.