7, Pond Green

This is a late 15th-century cottage, originally designed as an open hall plan with a service area to the right and a parlour to the left. In the 17th century, the cottage was extended to the right, and a chimney stack and floor were added to the open hall, transforming it into a house with a lobby entry plan. The building has a timber frame, now rendered with plaster, and a thatched roof of reed, topped with a ridge stack featuring grouped shafts on a square base. It is one storey high with attics. There are three later gabled dormers and four 20th-century windows. The original doorway to the lobby entry has been blocked; the current entry is likely near the site of the 15th-century doorway leading to the through passage. Inside the original service area, the timber framing is visible. The ceiling in this area is from the 15th century, featuring large timber joists laid flat and lodged on a rail within the walls, tenoned to a spine beam. The joists are plain, and the spine beam is stop-chamfered with run-out stops, supported by prick posts that form part of the partition wall between the service bay and the open hall, as well as the gable end of the original house.