Elm Cottage

Elm Cottage is part of a 16th-century house that was extended in the 20th century. The building is timber framed, mostly covered with weatherboarding, and part of it is plastered, with a thatched roof. It consists of two bays aligned east-west, featuring an internal chimney stack at the west gable. There is a single-storey flat-roofed extension to the west and a large extension to the southeast, connected by a link. The door and all windows are from the 20th century. Inside, the framing is exposed, with jowled posts at the corners and heavy tension bracing on the east corner posts, along with halved inside studs. The original partition between the bays is made of heavy studs at ground floor level, but there appears to be no original partition above. There is no central tie beam, and the building has an arch-braced collar truss. The original floor in the east bay consists of square-section common joists arranged axially, while a similar floor in the west bay seems to have been added after the original construction, although some original floorboards remain in both bays. The binding joist at the west end is chamfered and stopped on both sides, suggesting that there was once a third bay to the west of the current structure. This unique building does not fit known types, and its heavy framing is of high quality, which is unexpected for a cottage, although the overall accommodation has always been small, even with the addition of a third bay.