The Cottage

The Cottage is a house built around 1560, with alterations made in the 17th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It features a timber frame that is plastered and has a roof made of handmade red clay tiles. The building originally had two bays facing west and extended one bay further to the south. There is a single-storey extension with a catslide roof at the back of the right bay, dating from the early 17th century. An external brick stack from the 18th century is located at the right end, while a 19th-century internal stack is at the left end. The house is two storeys tall and has a two-window range of 20th-century casements and a 20th-century door. The floors throughout are made of 18th and 19th-century brick.

Architectural details include jowled posts, heavy studding, diamond mortices, and shutter grooves for unglazed windows at both the front and back. In the left bay, there is a double ogee moulded axial beam with foliate stops, and the joists are plastered to the soffits. Each rafter couple has trenches for a high collar, which were altered to clasped purlins in the 17th century. Carpenter's assembly marks on the rafters indicate that the building originally extended approximately 3.5 metres to the south, starting with VIII at the south end. There is a chamfered tiebeam in the middle of the current southern bay, featuring step stops. The house has been converted into cottages and later re-combined. An abstract of title indicates that it was built by Richard Hitching on land that was formerly part of The Hoods, although the exact date is not specified.