78 To 80, Northwood End Road

This is a house, likely built in the mid to late 17th century, with later additions and alterations in the early 18th and mid-19th centuries. It was originally a single dwelling but was later divided into a pair of cottages. The timber frame is mostly hidden behind a 20th-century roughcast render with pebbles, although some original framing is visible. The roof is covered with plain tiles, with 20th-century concrete pantiles to a lean-to addition. Brick chimneys are present.

The house has a modified central lobby entrance plan, with two 17th-century bays. Originally single-storey, the left bay was added as a single-storey extension and shares a back-to-back chimneystack with the original 17th-18th century bay. Entrances in the front of the stack lead to a pair of doors dividing the house into cottages. A secondary external chimney with a Haynes Estate cogged cap was added to the right gable in the 19th century when the entire range was raised to two storeys. There is a single-storey rear lean-to extension.

The front (north) elevation has three bays, with 19th-century cast iron casement windows containing small panes and original catches. The ground floor windows are three-light units, with two-light windows above them. A central hipped porch, supported by wooden posts with small brackets and matchstick balustrading, contains a pair of plank doors with cast iron handles and catches. The rear elevation retains the roofline of the original 17th-century construction, with a 20th-century dormer window, and has a 20th-century door and windows to the lean-to.

The interior reveals much original timber framing, particularly on the upper floors, with long down braces from posts to the mid-rail in the 17th-century bays. An early roofline is marked by the principal rafter between the right-hand bays. The left gable wall shows arching braces to a low tiebeam, a remnant of a former roof truss. The left bay has raised upper walls constructed of thin 19th-century studding, and a 19th-century rough spine beam supports narrow joists above. There are broad floorboards above a stair in the rear corner, of a superior quality and possibly re-used. Other upper floors are ceiled except for the rear of the right bay, which has plain, narrow joists. The ground floors throughout are brick-paved with 19th-century brick. 20th-century fireplaces have been inserted into the main stack, and a 19th-century grate and wooden fireplace are in the right bay. Various re-used doors are present.

The property represents a modest 17th- to early 18th-century cottage, retaining much of its original timber framing. It also demonstrates the phased development into mid-19th-century estate cottages, with contemporary internal detailing.