The Weaver'S Cottage

The Weaver's Cottage consists of three houses with attic workshops, built in the mid to late 18th century, with later alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries. The buildings are constructed of red brick, with some areas covered in 20th-century pebbledash, and feature a roof made of Welsh slate and plain tiles, complete with ridge stacks and dentilled eaves. They are three storeys high, with windows arranged in a pattern of 1:1:2, and were boarded at the time of the survey.

The left pair of houses, numbered 20 and 21, dates from the late 18th century and includes an early 19th-century boarded door with a hood and a segmentally arched window. To the right, there is a later 19th-century shopfront with a single window beneath a cornice, flanked by pilasters, and a recessed boarded door. Above this shopfront, there are two segment-headed windows and two flat-headed windows. The rear elevation, obscured by late 20th-century additions, features two 19th-century three-light casements on the second floor.

House number 22, built in the mid-18th century, has an early 19th-century doorcase and boarded door to the left, along with a blocked 19th-century shop window. To the right, there is an airbrick where a small window once existed. Above, there is a segment-headed window on the left and a smaller flat-headed window on the right, with two additional flat-headed windows above. There is also a corresponding blocked window on the rear elevation.

Inside, number 20 retains its original staircase and two early 19th-century three-light windows, along with one six-panel door and three boarded doors. Number 21 has an altered staircase and a stop-chamfered span beam. Number 22 features a principal fireplace with 19th and 20th-century infilling, an original staircase and enclosure, exposed original structural timber, and a 19th-century matchboard ceiling on the second floor.

These buildings are significant as they combine domestic and workshop functions and are rare examples from the period linked to the domestic worsted weaving industry in Kidderminster, which preceded the development of the 19th-century carpet industry. The interiors maintain much of their distinctive layout, and number 22 appears to have been specifically designed for industrial use.