The Old Post Office

The Old Post Office is a 17th-century vernacular cottage in Little Thetford, constructed of timber frame and brick, rendered, with a gabled roof recently recovered in plain tiles and slate. The north gable wall is built of gault brick incorporating a stack and chimney with tumbling-in detail and sits on a modern brick plinth. The building is rectangular in plan, comprising a single storey with an attic and a single-storey outshot to the rear. The street-facing elevation has a central door sheltered behind a modern side-entered porch, with a window on each side and gabled dormers above. All window frames are modern.

Internally, the ground floor retains some exposed light framing, though much is concealed by plasterwork and some has been replaced with brick. The floor features light ceiling joists with trimmers at both south and north ends, suggesting possible former access through the floor. The south end contains a large fireplace with a timber bressumer and an opening for a bread oven, now bricked up and the oven lost, with a modern fireplace set in place. A door in the west wall provides access to the rear kitchen and bathroom and to modern stairs. The kitchen contains a section of very modest framing and reused timber including a purlin, fitted with modern fixtures. The back door retains thin 17th or 18th-century strap hinges, as does the adjacent cupboard door beside the ground-floor fireplace. A ground-floor door opening to the stairs sits above a plinth section with empty mortices for studs, suggesting possible reuse; a mortice in the main rear wall filled with a broken tenon may indicate an early outshot.

At upper-floor level, two rooms are divided by a landing, with largely complete exposed framing of light scantling. The battened doors are modern creations from earlier timbers. A fireplace in the south wall has been opened up but is concealed by recent panelling. The roof is a simple, rustic coupled-rafter construction with occasional yoke pieces and a ridge pole.

The building dates to the 17th century and was originally constructed as a timber-framed cottage. It appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1887, by which time it had been extended to the rear with an addition to the north, now lost. The rear extension visible today was probably a service addition originally featuring a small stack, perhaps for a copper; this stack has since been replaced with a modern red-brick chimney. The house was subsequently weather-boarded and stone clad. More recently, a porch has been added to the front and the roof covering changed from pantiles to plain tiles.

The building exemplifies 17th-century vernacular construction typical of rural English settlements. The original plan form appears to have been a single ground-floor room heated from the south-end fireplace, which remains clearly discernible. Although fixtures, fittings, window frames, porch, and roof coverings are modern, the roof structure and timber framing—particularly at first-floor level—remain largely intact, and fireplaces survive at both levels, with the upper example concealed by later work.