Saddlers And Gateway Cottage

This is a house, now divided into two dwellings, located on the Leighton Buzzard Road (A4146) in Great Gaddesden. The original core of the building dates to the 16th century, with an eastern bay added in the 17th century, and a southeastern rear extension built in the 1950s. The house is timber-framed and has a roughcast painted front, while the eastern part features painted brick. The frame, with painted brick infill, is visible in a conservatory at the rear of the eastern house ("Saddlers"). It has steep roofs covered in old red tiles. The north-facing front is a two-storey, four-window-wide building, with two doorways sheltered by small gabled tiled hoods. Two large internal chimneys are present. A ground-floor window on the left-hand side has been blocked. The first floor has two-light casement windows with small panes of glass. The ground floor has three-light, flush, small-pane casements. The older left-hand door is four-panelled, moulded, set within a heavy frame with a moulded surround and shaped brackets which support the hood with a wavy bargeboard. The western house was formerly a saddler's shop, featuring double doors leading to a gateway in the western bay. Inside, the house retains an original two-bay crown-post roof structure, likely originally open to the roof. A large open fireplace is present with a moulded lintel from the 16th century.