Horselocks Cottage The Cottage

House, now divided into two dwellings: Horselocks Cottage and The Cottage (No.1). Built circa 1500, extended in the 17th century and again in the 20th century. Timber-framed with plaster render and clay tile roof.

The original structure comprises a two-bay hall facing west with a 17th-century axial stack set in the left bay. The left bay originally contained a storeyed service area, with a further 17th-century single-bay extension beyond it. The right bay originally housed a storeyed parlour or solar room. The building was converted into two separate dwellings along the vertical line of the stack: Horselocks Cottage occupies the left portion, while The Cottage (No.1) occupies the right portion.

The building is one storey with attic rooms. The front (west-facing) roof pitch is clad with handmade red clay tiles. The rear of Horselocks Cottage uses concrete tiles while the rear of No.1 is mainly clad with machine-made red clay tiles. A 20th-century flat-roofed rear extension was added to Horselocks Cottage. The Cottage has a 20th-century single-storey wing to the rear, a similar extension to the right side, and a 20th-century lean-to glazed porch to the right.

Windows include four 20th-century casements across the front elevation and two further casements in hipped dormers. The Cottage retains an early 19th-century fixed light of four panes with original early glass in its rear elevation, meriting special care. Horselocks Cottage has a wide boarded and ledged door with a 17th-century wooden handle, also meriting special care.

Internally, both properties retain jowled posts and heavy studding. Horselocks Cottage preserves the original floor of the service bay with heavy plain joists of horizontal section laid longitudinally. The left extension contains a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops and plain joists of vertical section. The ground-floor studding of the original external left wall has been removed, leaving the central post, three diamond portices, and a shutter groove for an unglazed window in the girt. Above the tie-beam the framing remains intact, including a window with mortices for one axial brace at the left end and no evidence of bracing for the plain crownpost in the partition wall to the hall; the collar-purlin is severed beyond the stack insertion point. The left extension features primary straight bracing, a cambered tie-beam, and a clasped purlin roof.

A wide wood-burning hearth faces left with 0.23-metre jambs, a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops, and a salt niche with peaked head. The 17th-century conversion of this medieval house to a lobby-entrance plan is reflected in these alterations.

In The Cottage (No.1), most framing is concealed by plaster except for the studded partition at the 'high' end of the hall, which retains peg-holes for a fixed bench, the original plain doorway to the parlour, and one of two original pintle hinges. The crownpost roof is present but plastered to the collar soffits, with one axial brace emerging from the plaster at the left end, indicating the presence of a concealed central crownpost. The parlour or solar bay retains its original floor, similar to that of the service bay. A 17th-century inserted floor exists in the hall. The axial stack is entirely plastered on its brick face.