Judds Cottage

Judds Cottage is a small hall house dating back to the early 14th century, with alterations around 1600 and in the 20th century. It is timber-framed with a plastered exterior and a thatched roof. Originally comprising four bays, the house incorporates an integral parlour/solar wing to the south, twin service rooms to the north, and a two-bay hall. A chimney stack with a single hearth was inserted into the north bay of the hall around 1600, serving a cross-entry. A floor was also inserted into the hall around the same time. The east-facing elevation features three 20th-century casement windows and a door with a small glass pane. A gabled dormer contains a 20th-century casement window. The roof is half-hipped to the south and hipped to the north. The original front and rear doors remain in the line of the original cross-entry. Internal framing is exposed. A 2-centred service doorhead exists, raised above its original height due to the sinking of the footings or the rise of the ground level over the last 6½ centuries. The original solar floor was also raised for the same reason, confirmed by evidence of removed, low-set, unglazed windows. Curved tension bracing is trenched to the outside of the studs. The structure incorporates jowled wallposts, a cambered central tiebeam, and a crownpost roof that remains largely complete, retaining original rafters, collars, and battens, all heavily smoke-blackened. The thatch has been renewed. The central crownpost has an octagonal section with scroll-moulded capping and a moulded base clasping the tiebeam. Originally featuring four upper braces, only one axial brace is now missing. Lateral braces are lap-jointed to rafters in the same housings as the collars, representing an early architectural feature. Collars are lap-jointed to rafters with nail-headed pegs, some pegged to collar-purlins. Curved rising braces extend to the king stud at the north end of the hall. The building is in an exceptionally unchanged condition and is comparable to Bridge House, Fyfield, surviving better than that example. The south wall of the solar was altered early, likely in the 16th century or earlier, with the substitution of widely spaced diamond mullions for the original wall studs, presumably to maximize daylight for a craft operation. Minor alterations have been made to the brickwork of the hearth since 1973.