Wildfowl Cottage

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16 September 2022 to amend the name and address, update and reformat the text to current standards

219/0/10021

FEN DITTON BAITS BITE LOCK Wildfowl Cottage

(Formerly listed as BATES BITE LOCK Wildfowl Cottage)

30-MAR-04

II

House. Probably late C17 with early C19 addition and some later alterations. Whitewashed brick and timber-frame with old plain-tile roof of two colours in wide bands. Large stack on rear slope to right. Stack on front slope to left and further tall stack on single-storey addition. Probably three-unit lobby-entry plan originally with single-storey service addition to west. Main range is of two storeys. Four-window range at first floor of three two-light casements and a single-light casement, the former horizontal sliding sashes. To ground floor the entrance is in a flat-roofed porch with casements to either side. Two-light C20 window on left end, small window above. There is a small-paned window in the addition to right which has a horizontal sliding sash on the end wall with a two-light casemnet above. Rear has further casements including a horizontal sliding sash to left.

INTERIOR. Bridging beams, some boxed, are visible. The large main stack has back-to back open fireplaces, one visible. A reception room has a full-height fitted corner cupboard whilst the western service addition retains a range, copper and bread oven.

HISTORY. In the C18 the house appears to have been part of the lands owned by the Wollard famiy including nearby Biggin Abbey (q.v.), and was perhaps always associated with river traffic. In the C19 and early C20 it was a public house known as the Pike and Eel, no doubt serving barge traffic as it stands very close to Bates Bite Lock.

This house retains much from the C17, C18 and C19 including interior fittings and service features, as well as the unusual surviving windows and the massive stack.