Cobham Oak Cottages

Cobham Oak Cottages

This house, now divided into 3 cottages, is a timber-framed building of 13th, 16th and 18th-century date, plastered and roofed with handmade red plain tiles. It was undergoing alteration at the time of survey in June 1986.

The main range, facing southwest, comprises four bays and represents the service end of an aisled hall dating from 1250–1300, which was altered and extended to the right in the 16th century. A late 16th-century stack occupies the second bay from the left, with an 18th or 19th-century internal stack at the left end. To the right is a two-bay crosswing with an early 17th-century internal stack at its junction with the main range. Lean-to extensions of various dates (19th and 20th century) run along the full length of the rear and at the right end. The main range stands one storey with attics; the crosswing rises to two storeys. The building features two early 19th-century three-light casements with diamond leading, one two-light and one three-light window in lean-to dormers, and two plain boarded doors. Other windows and doors were under alteration at survey. The main range carries a gambrel roof.

The earliest structural phase (1250–1300) comprises a single transverse timber frame one bay from the left end, with two arcade posts, a tiebeam and passing braces. The rear arcade post is chamfered to a half-octagonal section with a moulded capital, then square section above (partly concealed in later brickwork), containing a double-pegged mortice for an aisle tie and single-pegged rising mortices for arcade braces. The front arcade post is similar, both unjowled. The tiebeam is straight with a short section missing in the middle; it shows matrices for two lap joints and is trenched for two passing braces, which are complete, crossing at the apex and secured to the arcade posts with open notched lap joints of archaic profile, heavily smoke-blackened. The front arcade plate survives for nearly two bays from the left end, with matrices for lap-jointed braces. A short section of the rear arcade plate remains, joined to a 16th-century extension to the left by a simple edge-halved scarf.

In the 16th century, the building was converted to an unaisled hall house. A late 16th-century stack was inserted between the arcade posts, now with a 20th-century grate facing right; posts at either side suggest this may originally have been a timber-framed chimney, later bricked in. A plain doorway in the rear of the left bay and one of the existing front doors on the same line form a cross-entry behind the stack. The hall-parlour partition is well-constructed of re-used timber with a plain doorway through; it features trenched braces terminating on the studs, bench fixings, and a 17th-century inserted doorway above the tiebeam. Diamond mortices in the rear wall of the parlour indicate an unglazed window.

Floors throughout are supported on pegged clamps. In the parlour, joists of square section are arranged longitudinally and chamfered with lamb's tongue stops (late 16th century). The hall has longitudinal plain joists of various sections, while the left bay contains a plain axial beam with plain joists of narrow section (18th or 19th century). The gambrel roof dates to the 18th or 19th century.

The crosswing and its adjacent stack are contemporary, dating to the early 17th century. The stack contains two large wood-burning hearths with jambs of 0.33 metre brickwork. The crosswing has one unjowled and three jowled posts, short primary bracing, and a clasped purlin roof with thin curved wind bracing. The central right post carries an elaborately carved bracket in the solid, supporting an ovolo-moulded bridging beam with ornamental stops. The joists are of vertical section, jointed with soffit tenons and extended haunches (C.A. Hewett, English Historic Carpentry, 1980, figure 307). The absence of wattle fixings in the crosswing indicates it was lathed and plastered from the outset. An inserted attic floor features a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue stops.