Sun Cottage

Sun Cottage is part of a former mansion, now comprising a house, shop, and garage. The core of the building dates back to the 15th century, with substantial extensions added in the 16th and 17th/18th centuries. It is timber-framed and has been plastered, with a roof of handmade red plain tiles. The original main range has four bays facing southeast and a continuous jetty. An early 16th-century stack is located behind the axis in the second bay from the left end, while a later 17th/18th-century stack sits in front of the axis at the right end. A rear corridor extension was built around 1560, and a three-bay wing, originally longer, was added to the rear of the right end in the 16th century. Originally, this property was combined with the adjacent buildings at numbers 3 (The Sun Inn) and 7 (Feering House), forming a mansion known as Strangers.

The cottage is two stories high. On the ground floor, there is a 20th-century casement window, a 19th-century shop projecting under the jetty with a half-glazed door, and double doors leading to a garage. The first floor has a 16th-century oriel window, whose base is plastered over and windows altered to 20th-century casements. There are also two 20th-century casements. At the left end is a plain boarded door with a small light, set within a late 16th-century gabled porch with a moulded and carved four-centred outer arch and original carved bargeboards. The original horizontal section below the jetty reveals the beams and plain joists, jointed to the chamfered axial beams with central tenons. Other features include jowled posts and close studding. The stack near the left end has a wide wood-burning hearth on the ground floor, with a niche above the mantel beam featuring chamfered jambs and a four-centred arch. The hearth has an 18th-century pine fire surround with boldly carved rocaille ornament and a plain cupboard to the right. This room also has an 18th-century moulded wooden coving. The first-floor section of the same stack has a chamfered and mitred mantel beam over a wood-burning hearth, with a niche above displaying a trefoiled head of moulded brick from the early 16th century. Original floorboards are present throughout. The roof has arched braces to cambered tiebeams, originally of two open trusses, now studded and partitioned. The roof structure includes a crownpost roof with axial bracing. A simple wall painting of an arcaded design from around 1600 is visible on a partition in the attic. In the rear corridor extension are examples of edge-halved and bridled scarf joints, and two blocked windows with one moulded mullion, likely originally containing early glazed panels. A moulded four-plank door from the early 17th century leads to the rear of the ground floor, and an early 19th-century half-glazed door on the first floor has two large bull's-eye panes.