Yarmouth Cottage

Yarmouth Cottage is a timber-framed house, originally dating to the 15th century, and significantly altered in the 17th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It is now divided into two separate dwellings, numbered 12 and 14, and stands on the west side of Church Street in Tollesbury.

The house comprises a two-bay hall range facing east, with a late 16th-century axial stack in the right bay. To the right of the hall is a two-bay parlour/solar crosswing, with a truncated external stack at eaves level and a rear lean-to extension. Number 14 contains a two-bay service crosswing featuring an 18th-century internal stack, and a small 20th-century extension filling a former passageway between it and number 16. The walls of number 12 are roughcast rendered, with the north wall clad in Flemish bond red brick. Number 14 has plastered brick walls, and both properties are roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

Number 12 has a ground floor with one 20th-century splayed sash window and one early 19th-century sash window of 16 lights. The first floor has two similar sashes. A four-panel flush door provides access to the property. The chimney stack is cement-rendered. Number 14 mirrors the appearance of number 12, with a ground-floor splayed sash and an early 19th-century sash of 16 lights, and a first-floor sash and a 20th-century sash window. Some crown glass remains in the windows. A 20th-century half-glazed door is also present. The rear of number 12 features two 19th-century horizontal sashes of eight lights. Jowled posts are a notable feature.

The hall reveals close studding with Suffolk bracing to the upper floor, a chamfered axial beam with plain stops, and plain vertical-section joists, many of which are modern replacements. The wide wood-burning hearth has been significantly rebuilt. The walls were raised approximately one metre during the 17th/18th centuries. The right crosswing contains a chamfered binding beam with step stops and short straight braces, plain horizontal-section joists framing an original stair trap in the rear bay, an underbuilt jetty to the front, a blocked unglazed window with one diamond mullion in the upper right wall, some original wattle and daub infill to the left wall, and a crownpost roof with axial braces, including the original gablet hip to the rear. The left crosswing retains evidence of a former cross-entry. Chamfered horizontal-section joists with plain stops are jointed to the binding beam with central tenons and housed soffits. Another underbuilt jetty is present to the front. An upper left wall contains a blocked unglazed window, with a shutter and mortices for two diamond mullions of unusually large oblong section. This crosswing also has a cambered tiebeam, a crownpost roof with axial bracing (the rear bay of which has been rebuilt), a wood-burning hearth constructed with re-used 16th-century bricks.