Lichen Cottage

Lichen Cottage is an early 17th-century cottage, extended in the early 19th century and again in the 20th century. The original section is timber-framed and plastered, with some exposed timber framing. A later extension is built of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern. Both sections have slate roofs. The three-bay south-facing front has a central chimney stack, and the original section has one storey with attics, featuring a steep, half-hipped roof which was originally thatched. A left-hand extension has a chimney stack in its return wall and a shallower pitched roof. A rear lean-to extension was added around 1975. The cottage has five 20th-century casement windows on the ground floor and three more on the first floor, one of which is within a swept dormer. There is a 20th-century front door. Inscriptions 'WA 1840' and 'CA 1840' are visible in the brickwork beside the left-hand window. The interior retains jowled posts, curved corner braces inside the studding which is not trenched, chamfered axial beams, exposed plain horizontal joists, and a clasped purlin roof. Two staircases exist, one in each section of the building, dating from its use as two separate cottages in the 19th century. The floors appear to have been raised by approximately 15 to 20 centimetres. Original hearths are present, with plastering covering the left side and exposed brick on the right.