Cakebole Cottage

Cakebread Cottage

Cakebread Cottage is a 17th-century timber-framed cottage with significant alterations and additions spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The late 20th-century extensions are excluded from this listing.

Construction and Materials

The cottage is built of timber-framed square panelling with brick infill panels, though much of the ground floor has been rebuilt in brick. It is roofed in plain clay tiles with a brick chimney stack at the south-west gable end. The gable ends are finished with 21st-century uPVC bargeboards, and the windows are early 21st-century timber casements.

Plan and Layout

The building is rectangular, aligned on a south-west to north-east axis. It follows a two-room plan with an inserted cross passage containing the staircase. The heated room occupies the south-west end and features an external gable-end stack. A mid-19th-century lean-to has been added to the south-west end, subsequently altered and extended in the 20th century.

Exterior

The one-and-a-half storey timber-framed cottage presents a gabled north-east elevation with square-panelled timber-framing featuring straight braces and brick infill. The ground floor, largely rebuilt in brick, contains a three-light window, with a pair of two-light windows positioned toward the gable. The roof truss comprises a tie beam with three vertical struts supporting the collar above, braced by vee-struts to the principal rafters.

The two-bay north-west elevation has brick to the ground floor and square-panelling above with brick infill panels. Straight braces mark the extent of the two bays. The ground floor originally had five two-light windows flanking a now-blocked off-centre entrance. To the right sits the end wall of the lean-to, finished with stepped brickwork to the verges.

The south-west elevation contains a two-light window in the gable to the left of the brick stack, which partially obscures the roof truss. The vee strut and two of the vertical struts supporting the collar are visible here.

A dormer window has been inserted into the rear (south-east) elevation, and the roof has been extended to form a catslide roof incorporating a late 20th-century single-storey addition.

Interior

The 17th-century cottage is now accessed through a late 20th-century extension, with its timber-framed rear wall now functioning as an internal partition. The north-east room features an axial 17th-century chamfered ceiling beam with stepped stops at its south-west end, currently supported by a 20th-century brick pillar. The 17th-century cross frame forms the partition wall, and an opening has been created to access the inserted cross passage and heated room beyond. The cross passage contains a 20th-century staircase accessible from the rear extension.

The south-west room contains a 17th-century chamfered beam running through the later partition with stepped stops where it meets the 17th-century cross frame. The timber-framed gable end wall remains visible in the lean-to addition at the south-west end. The rear wall has been removed to provide access to the later 20th-century single-storey addition.

At first-floor level, a doorway has been cut through the tie beam of the internal cross frame, and an additional partition wall has been inserted between this and the north-east wall to form a corridor providing access to the 20th-century rear extension. The purlins and three 17th-century roof trusses survive intact, with their tie beams, collars and principal rafters.