Three Gables

Three Gables is a late 17th-century thatched and timber-framed cottage.

The building comprises a single storey with an attic storey. It has an L-shaped footprint formed by a main block with a lean-to projecting from the southern end of the rear elevation, and a small porch on the front elevation. The primary materials are timber frame and red brick. The roof is thatched, though the lean-to is slated. Windows are timber-framed replacement units in a double-glazed casement style, though one historic small lead-paned window survives.

The front (west) elevation is symmetrical, with a gabled porch at the centre and two casement windows either side. The original timber frame of this elevation has been given a single-course brick skin in stretcher bond. The east elevation has a mid- to late 19th-century single-storey lean-to which is rendered with simple pargetting decoration. The south elevation is rendered and contains a small original ground-floor window and a later offset upper-floor window opening. The north elevation has a lower section of painted brick with weather-boarding above. The roof features three gabled wall-head dormers and a central brick ridge stack.

Internally, the cottage retains its original plan of two rooms at ground and first-floor levels with a central axial passageway on the ground floor. The timber frame remains extensively exposed throughout. The ground-floor dining and sitting rooms contain chamfered spine beams with cross joists, many bearing nail holes from lath attachment. The walls comprise close studwork resting on a sill and supporting the wall plate, which has been renewed in places. Cross braces link the posts and studs in the ground-floor rooms. Some original timber frame is concealed behind later stud walling.

The dining room features a large inglenook fireplace with an exposed bressumer, and a visible brick stack rising through the cottage. A pair of corner cupboards with classically detailed door-cases, fluted pilasters, and dentilled cornices are located in the dining room. The staircase splits left and right as it rises, serving a bedroom and small WC to the left and the master bedroom to the right, with a small landing above the entrance passage. The master bedroom contains exposed wattle between the door and the exposed brick chimney stack, and includes a cupboard which may formerly have had a coffin hatch.

The roof is a collar purlin structure with collars exposed in the two bedrooms; the remaining structure remains in situ above recently installed ceilings. The lean-to contains the kitchen and is lined with timber boarding, with exposed timber frame and brick noggin infill visible in its western wall, the original exterior wall of the building. Historic boarded doors with original ironwork survive throughout.

This list entry was subject to a minor amendment on 14 February 2019.