Ruskett'S Cottages

Ruskett's Cottages are a house, now divided into two dwellings, dating back to around 1500, with alterations made in the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The building is timber-framed and has been plastered, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It began as a small medieval house of four bays facing west, and was later extended to the right by one bay around 1984. A 16th-century axial stack is located in the middle of the range. Number 1 occupies the left portion of the building up to the middle of the stack, and Number 2 occupies the portion to the right.

The cottages are one storey high with attics. Number 1 has a 20th-century single-storey wing to the rear of the left bay and a lean-to extension to the right of it. Number 2 has a 20th-century single-storey wing to the rear right and a felt-roofed lean-to extension to the left. The windows are 20th-century casements, with two additional windows in gabled dormers, one in each house. There are two 20th-century doors. The roof is a gambrel style. The exterior walls have a shaft cement rendering.

Internally, in January 1989, Number 1 was undergoing major renovation, exposing the timber frame, while Number 2 was fully plastered. Number 1’s interior reveals the parlour/solar bay and hall of the medieval house, the stack being in the shorter right bay of the two-bay hall. Features include jowled posts, heavy studding, a cambered tie-beam, and an original window in the rear wall of the left bay, with four diamond mortices at the top and bottom. The floor of the left bay was rebuilt in the 18th century with plain vertical joists. The right bay has a 17th-century inserted floor with a chamfered axial beam and heavier, vertical joists. The roof was completely rebuilt in the 18th century in gambrel form. The 16th-century stack was altered in the 18th century, with the hearth size reduced using 18th-century bricks, but retaining the original mantel beam and an additional beam below it. Number 2 is fully plastered inside and is believed to comprise the service bay of the medieval house, with a 1984 extension to the right. A jowled post is outlined in plaster on the front wall, and there is a 20th-century grate.