St. Nicholas Cottage

St. Nicholas Cottage, Little Braxted

A former National School constructed in 1854–5, now serving as a cottage and community facility. The building was created at the expense of Reverend Charles Townsend, Curate of Little Braxted, to educate poor children of the parish. It comprises a two-storey schoolmaster's house adjoined by a single-storey classroom in an elongated T-shaped plan. An additional classroom was added to the south-east in 1890, designed by Reverend Ernest Geldart, vicar of Little Braxted from 1881 to 1900. Further alterations followed in the 20th century, including a remodelled entrance porch, bathroom extension added in the 1960s, and a timber-clad porch at the north-east corner.

The building is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond with tile-covered gable and half-hipped roofs. The south-facing façade features a two-storey integrated schoolmaster's house with a projecting gable to the north-west, marked by an engraved brick corner stone bearing the initials 'R E' and the date 1854. The roofs display scallop-shaped decorative bargeboards to the façade, with plainer versions at the side elevations and rear. An off-centre ridge stack serves both the house and the earlier classroom. A small bell tower sits at the east gable end, though the bell is now missing.

Windows comprise casement windows with mullions and diamond leaded lights beneath segmental brick heads on the house, and three tripartite casement windows with mullions and leaded lights serving the classrooms. The rear elevation has similar tripartite windows to the classrooms and leaded light casements to the house.

Internally, the former schoolmaster's house retains period detail including wainscots, dado rails and a simple fire surround in the front room. A four-panel door leads from the classroom directly into this room. The kitchen preserves its range and cupboard recess. Winder stairs ascend to the first floor, where rooms feature simple cornices, fireplaces and battened doors.

The earliest classroom retains surviving wainscots and a fireplace at the west end with a late 19th-century fire surround. The king-post roof is clad in timber planking. A timber partition with fixed centre and two flanking doors separates the earlier classroom from the 1890 addition. The later classroom retains a metal strut roof, likely contemporary with its construction.

Reverend Ernest Geldart, who designed the 1890 extension, was a nationally significant priest-architect who had trained under Alfred Waterhouse. He was responsible for 163 High Church projects, the most important being the reredos at St Cuthbert's, Philbeach Gardens, Kensington. He also oversaw important alterations to Little Braxted church in 1884.

From 1937 onwards, the artist Kenneth Wood (1912–2008) occupied the former schoolmaster's house and the earlier classroom, which he used as an artist's studio. Geldart's 1890 addition is presently occupied by the Little Braxted Community and Educational Trust.