Oak Cottage

Oak Cottage, Flaunden

A Grade II* listed house of exceptional architectural importance, with origins in the late 15th century as an open hall house, substantially developed and altered over subsequent centuries.

The building began as a late 15th-century open hall house with a mid to late 16th-century E-facing crosswing. In the early 17th century, a floor was inserted into the hall, the eaves were raised, and a wooden chimney was built in the E cross-passage. The late 17th century saw major changes: the hall was converted to a kitchen with the W end divided for service rooms, and the crosswing was subdivided with separate fireplaces into a rebuilt chimney in the old cross-passage. In the 18th century, part of the W room became a parlour with a large external chimney at the W end (dated '1747' in cut brickwork). The front of the crosswing was given a hipped roof by cutting back the jetty and gable, and the house was roughcast. During the 19th century the house was subdivided. In the early 20th century, the roughcast was removed and planks were added to the front of the crosswing to simulate timbers marking the raising of the eaves of the hall. A later 20th-century SW rear wing was added with conversion back to a single house.

The structure is timber-framed with roughcast infill. The E crosswing has close studding to the ground floor and some red brick infill to the rest of the front. The steep roof is of old red tile, hipped with a gablet at the W end and hipped at the E. A large internal chimney stands at the junction of the wings, positioned a third from the E end.

The house forms a tall 2-storey L-plan facing N, set back from the road, with the later low SW rear gabled extension. Three windows face N, fitted with flush leaded casement windows. A door enters the lobby by the chimney. The hall range displays wide panel timber framing with wide timbers and original curved tension braces at the NW corner, others probably renewed. Short close-spaced vertical studs above the old wallplate indicate raising of eaves. An 18th-century fire insurance plate bearing 'PROTECTOR' with a scene of firefighting is visible. The W gable has a frame with large panels, two collars, and a massive corner post with tension brace.

The interior retains substantial exposed timber framing. The former open hall, measuring 30 feet by 19½ feet, was roofed in two bays with a separate narrow bay for the cross-passage. The open truss displays continuous hollow chamfers to the posts, heavy curved braces, and cambered tie-beams. There are two butt purlins and curved wind braces. The moulded wallplate and other principal members create an unusually rich effect. Queen struts are moulded with knee-braces to the cambered collar and sunk spandrels. The rafters are smoke-blackened but show no evidence of a louvre to the ridge. Screens may originally have existed at the entry doors, as the truss at the E end of the hall is moulded only on the W side, although wallplates and mid-height rail extend for the width of the cross-passage before the wall of the later E crosswing.

The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (typescript notes) suggests this was originally a long house with a detached kitchen and service rooms, with a byre for cattle on the site of the later E crosswing.

The 2-bay E crosswing features a clasped-purlin roof, chamfered jowled posts, cambered tie-beams, wattle and daub partition, and both squint-butted and straight-butted scarf joints.

The building has been noted in Medieval Archaeology (XIII, 1969, p. 275) as having "probably the finest moulded beams of any domestic building in Hertfordshire".