Unity Cottage

Unity Cottage is a part of a house, now a separate dwelling, dating back to the 14th and 16th centuries, with alterations made in the 20th century. It is timber framed and plastered, with a roof covered in handmade red plain tiles. The building represents one bay and two incomplete bays of an original three-bay crosswing of a former hall house, originally extending to the left onto the site now occupied by numbers 1 and 3. A late 16th-century external stack is located to the rear left. A 16th-century two-bay wing extends to the rear.

The front elevation features a 20th-century bow window on the ground floor, positioned below a reconstructed jetty supported by two 20th-century brackets. A sash window with 10 upper and 10 lower panes is on the first floor. A 20th-century door is in the right return. The roof was reconstructed to align with that of numbers 1 and 3. On the upper floor of the right return are two late 16th-century windows, each featuring one ovolo mullion, two diamond saddle bars, and modern glazing. A similar 20th-century imitation window is on the left elevation above. The rear wing has a hipped roof.

Inside, the middle and front bays have longitudinal joists of heavy, square section, jointed to the binding beam with central tenons. The lower front wall has been reconstructed as a jetty, without pegged joints, aligned with number 3 but positioned approximately 0.75 metres lower. The joists of the rear bay are transverse, significantly altered in the left half, likely replacing a staircase. A partition between the middle and rear bays has been removed. A blocked late 16th-century window with one ovolo mullion (saddle bars missing) is visible in the right wall. A wide wood-burning hearth has jambs 0.33 metres wide, featuring a re-used early 16th-century mantel beam with a cranked top and chamfered soffit, unstopped and with curved internal splays, all re-pointed with cement mortar. The rear wing has chamfered axial beams, plain joists jointed to them with unrefined soffit tenons, and a complete studded partition between the bays.

In the front range, a steeply cambered tiebeam with two arched braces 0.12 metres wide, formerly spanning two bays of similar length, is now located near the front, suggesting the original front bay once extended to the edge of West Street. There is no evidence of a crownpost. The rear tiebeam is similar, retaining one of two arched braces; the base of a square crownpost is visible below the ceiling, unpegged. The roof appears to have an inserted crownpost of the continuous roof over numbers 1 and 3, likely constructed around 1500. The right wallplate of the rear wing is half-lapped to that of the original crosswing, while the left wallplate begins behind the stack.