Gothic House

Gothic House is a house, likely dating from about 1700, that has undergone significant alterations in the early 19th century and late 19th century, particularly to its facade. A further office was added in the mid-19th century. The principal part of the building is constructed of local red and yellow brick in English bond, with wire-cut gault brick used for the 19th-century additions. The parapet, shaped end parapets, and octagonal ridge and end stacks are all later 19th-century additions.

The original layout probably consisted of a single range with a lobby entry and a small kitchen range at the rear. A rear addition, constructed around 1823, now creates a T-shaped plan. The house has two storeys and an attic, with two dormers concealed behind the parapet. The late 19th-century facade is designed in an early 18th-century style, framed by rusticated quoins, and features a range of five 19th-century hung sashes with twelve panes each, each topped with a pediment. These pediments are supported by scroll console brackets, and the window surrounds are raised and moulded. The central window above the doorway is smaller and has a swan’s neck pediment. The doorway remains in its original position, opposite the stack, but the hood is a 19th-century shell design on brackets carved with acanthus. The door itself is of 19th or 20th-century origin.

An office was built in the mid-19th century, using gault brick with wire cuts, and has a stepped parapet to its ends and sides. The entry is through a round-headed doorway with a raised surround on the side wall. A rear addition, dated RS1823I, is also constructed in gault brick with wire cuts and has a gabled roof. Two storeys in height, this wing incorporates fragments of medieval stone, likely from the 13th century and possibly from the church which was rebuilt in the 15th century, used within a garden wall.

Internally, a passage was inserted along the rear of the house in the late 18th century, accompanied by a new staircase consisting of one flight from the passageway, another from the hall, meeting at a landing. This staircase is open-string with square newels, panelled, with moulded rails and two slender balusters to each tread – each baluster is a combination of barley-sugar twists and diminishing columns. Some of the earlier, vase-shaped balusters from around 1700 remain, leading to the attic. In the attic, a bolection moulded fireplace surround, marbled, is set against the chimney breast and may be original to the house. An inglenook fireplace is found in the rear wing. The office retains an original gas point and tray holder for sealing documents. The house was depicted in an engraving that appeared in the Illustrated London News of 13th April, 1850, following a fire in Cottenham. Historical records, including the Court Rolls of the Manor of Harleston, Cottenham, refer to a new building on the site in 1744, 1770 and alterations in 1823. The property is liable to flooding.