Hill Cottage

Hill Cottage is a house dating back to approximately 1400, with significant alterations in the early 17th century and the early 19th century. It is timber-framed and has been clad in weatherboarding, with a peg-tiled roof. The house originally consisted of two cells. The front has a two-window range of 19th-century casement windows with a 4x3 pane arrangement. The front door, positioned centrally, has simple sunk panels, and is sheltered by a 20th-century porch with a sloping roof. There is a red brick chimney stack at the rear on the east side, enclosed by a 19th-century brick lean-to, and a smaller red brick stack on the west gable end.

The interior retains two bays of what was originally an open medieval hall, each measuring 12 feet (3.6m) long by 18 feet (5.4m) wide. These are separated by a massive cambered tie-beam, with a lower fillet 10 inches (0.25m) deep, featuring a crown post and two surviving curved braces above. The crown post has a base shaped into a semicircular form, a flat face downwards, and a square shaft with square fillets on each face. The visible remnants of a collar purlin and a section of the original hall wall plate, featuring an accurately cut step stopped chamfer, suggest the truss remains in its original position, although the arched braces to the tie-beam have been removed; the corresponding peg holes remain.

In the early 17th century, ceilings were inserted into the two bays, and the roof was rebuilt with a clasped side purlin system. Original timbers were reused to create two rooms on the ground floor and two in the attic. Early 17th-century panelling, with moulded muntins and rails (splayed on their upper surfaces), has been used to create three doors and a boarded area. Butterfly and H hinges remain. The lateral fireplace, located at the back of the east bay and within the house frame, is likely of 17th-century origin, but much of its structure is obscured by later 19th- and 20th-century work. The house is notable as a fragment of a small hall house, which has evidently lost its storeyed ends, but without any visible external trace of this change. The group value derives from its historical significance and architectural interest.