50 Silver Street, Godmanchester

This is a cottage dating from approximately 1750. It is located in Godmanchester, and is of group value.

The cottage is constructed of red brick walls laid in a Flemish bond pattern. It has a steeply pitched roof covered with clay tiles. The main structure is rectangular, with single-storey extensions added to both the north and south gable ends.

The east-facing elevation, which fronts Silver Street, has three bays over two storeys. Running along the west-facing elevation, which looks towards Farm Hall, is a similar three-bay, single-storey arrangement. The roof is steeply pitched and tiled. Gable stacks with wrought-iron wall-ties rise from the brickwork. The east elevation features two bays of nine-pane, horizontal sliding sash windows on the upper floor, with vaguely camber-arched windows on the ground floor. A central, single-storey porch, with a lean-to clay-tiled roof, timber cladding, and a timber-battened door, is situated centrally on the east elevation. The west elevation has two pointed-arched window openings with gauged brick voussoirs and timber-framed Y-tracery windows. A central pointed-arched doorway, also with matching voussoirs, has a timber plank and battened door. A single-storey extension was added to the north gable in the early 19th century, featuring a lean-to roof and a camber-arched window with a timber-framed casement. A more recent single-storey extension to the south gable, built around 1980, replaced an earlier lean-to. This extension has a timber-framed casement window on its south elevation and a timber-battened stable door on its east elevation; it is considered architecturally modest and is excluded from the listing, as noted on the map.

The cottage’s interior has four principal rooms on the ground floor: a modern kitchen in the south extension, a dining room and a sitting room within the main body of the house, and a bathroom in the north extension. The original entrance was through the central porch, which leads into the sitting room. To the left of the porch, a timber plank and battened door gives access to the dining room. The dining room features an original red brick chimney breast on the south gable end, a stable door to the kitchen, and an integrated cupboard on the north wall. To the left of the porch is the sitting room, containing an original red brick chimney breast on the north gable wall. A timber battened door on the west wall leads to a steep staircase to the first floor. Upstairs, there are two bedrooms, one to the north and one to the south, each with a blocked fireplace on their gable walls.

Outbuildings were erected to the south-east, perpendicular to the entrance from Silver Street, around 1980. These lack historical or architectural significance and are excluded from the listing.