The Cottage

This is a house, likely dating back to the 15th century or earlier, with alterations made in the 16th, 17th, and 20th centuries. It is timber-framed, with roughcast rendering and a thatched roof. Originally a two-bay hall house facing south, it features an internal stack on the left side and a formerly storeyed parlour/solar bay to the right, now with a 19th-century external stack. A 20th-century single-storey lean-to extension has been added beyond the solar bay, and a late 17th-century two-bay extension exists on the left, its hearth backing onto the original stack. A 20th-century flat-roofed extension is present at the rear.

The house is one storey with attics. The front features three 18th-century two-light windows, each with one wrought iron casement and diamond leading. There is also one smaller 18th-century fixed light at half-height, one 20th-century casement, and two similar two-light windows in gabled dormers, one 18th-century and one 17th-century. The sides and back have four more 18th-century windows of a similar type, largely in their original positions. A 20th-century gabled porch shelters the front door.

Inside, the original hall has a late 16th-century inserted floor with chamfered transverse and longitudinal beams with lamb's tongue stops, and plain, horizontally sectioned joists supported on pegged clamps. The roof is a crownpost roof, missing its central tiebeam and crownpost, but retaining one axial brace at the right end. The roofing includes wide down-bracing and incomplete display bracing, as well as original wattle and daub with diaper patterns on both sides. The hearth facing on the right is blocked, with only the mantel beam visible; a bread oven remains within the original hearth, with an iron door in situ but blocked, modern access being provided. The hearth facing on the left has an aperture for a previously existing external bread oven, which has been removed; the mantel beam is carved with three shields of arms and dates (1347, 1510, and 1660) of unknown origin and likely dating to the 19th or 20th century. The left extension features chamfered beams with run-out stops and thin joists.

Two features suggest an earlier origin for the hall house than the 15th century: the very wide and conspicuous bracing at the high end of the hall, and the fact that every roof collar is pegged to the collar purlin. Confirmation of a 14th-century origin would require examination of the wallplate scarfs, but these are concealed by splints on the interior and plaster on the exterior. Jowled posts, heavy studding, three diamond mortises, and a shutter groove for an unglazed window in the right-end solar wall are also visible.