Woodhill Cottages

Woodhill Cottages is a timber-framed building dating from the 17th century, originally conceived as a pair of one-and-a-half bay lobby entrance cottages, and subsequently altered into a single dwelling accessed via the original east end doorway. The timber frame is constructed from thin scantling and rendered with a roughcast finish. The hipped roof is covered in plain clay tiles and incorporates a wide central brick chimney stack.

The building presents as two storeys and three bays on its south-facing front elevation. Each of the original cottages had single ground floor and upper floor windows, now replaced with 20th-century two-light horizontal sash windows with single glazing bars. The end walls feature two-light windows at first floor level, originally intended for staircase lighting; these now have 20th-century metal window frames with glazing bars. A 20th-century gabled porch with vertically-boarded door and plain barge boards now encloses the west doorway. A shallow, single-storey extension is present to the rear, along with a north-facing side extension (rear), neither of which are of particular architectural interest.

Inside, the main entrance is through the original west cottage door, leading into a narrow lobby with a winder staircase to the upper floor. The ground floor is now open plan, with a prominent brick base to the central chimney stack, containing back-to-back hearths below shallow brick arches. The interior reveals slender wall framing, straigtened down bracing extending from substantial central studs, slender ceiling joists carried on chamfered bridging beams with lambs' tongue stops, and a pegged clasped collar-purlin roof structure. Some 20th-century rafters have been inserted above the original rafters when the roof was last re-laid. The upper floor rooms are now accessed by a narrow rear corridor, featuring plain plank doors. One upper floor hearth is blocked, but both chimney breasts remain intact.