Thrift Cottage

Thrift Cottage, Sewardstone Road

A cottage of the early 19th century incorporating 18th-century fabric, altered in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is timber-framed with pebble-dashed render, applied over weatherboard cladding on the rear elevation. It follows a simple two-room plan on the ground floor with a southern outshot.

The cottage has two storeys. The front façade features a central 19th-century gabled porch, with an original sash window with glazing bars to the left and a two-light sash window to the right. At first floor there are two flush sash windows with glazing bars but without horns, now boarded up. The asymmetric gabled roof has plain tiles covering the front pitch and pantiles to the rear, with two truncated end chimneys.

The rear elevation exposes timber structural elements beneath removed weatherboard cladding, including a midrail, studs and part of a door jamb. A rear extension has been removed, revealing an interior doorway to the rear kitchen and outshot. The main rear entrance is positioned to the right, with an original window opening at ground floor level to its right (the window itself now absent). At first floor are two boarded-up flush sash windows with glazing bars flanking a central casement window.

Internally, both ground floor rooms contain boxed-in bridging beams. The right-hand room retains dado and picture rails, built-in cupboards and wall panelling beneath the dado rail, though fire surrounds have been removed. The midrail of the south cross frame remains exposed, continuing into the rear kitchen. The left-hand room has exposed studwork at the north gable end and picture rails. All windows are fitted with moulded timber surrounds. A steep dog-leg stair at the rear leads to the first floor. The three bedrooms are plain with no surviving fireplaces. The exposed window frames throughout are all six-over-six sash windows without horns. Two two-panel doors survive, one with an 'H-L' hinge. Above the stairs is a 20th-century casement window comprising two leaded lights with a hopper opening to the top, each containing 25 stained glass panes centred with Coats of Arms and geometric stained glass patterns.

The cottage and Thrift Hall are identified on the parish map of 1825 (possibly by JJ Crawter and Sons), when owned by Charles Preston, and again on the Tithe Map of 1842. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1870 shows the cottage within the walled garden of Thrift Hall on the suburban outskirts of Waltham Abbey, apparently very close to or attached to a larger villa to its south known as The Limes. Sale particulars of 1859 describe the cottage as having four bedrooms, a parlour, kitchen, scullery, larder and gardens to front and rear. The cottage formerly served as accommodation for the hall's caretaker. Thrift Hall was renovated in the early 21st century, but the cottage has been vacant since approximately 1997, with most door and window openings boarded at the time of inspection.