Plum Tree Cottage

Plum Tree Cottage is a house that has been divided into two homes, located in Little Gaddesden. It dates from the mid-16th century, with rear brick wings added in the mid-19th century, and a southern end and porch for No. 8 added in the 1970s. The building features exposed timber framing on the first floor, which is infilled with yellow brick, while the ground floor and rear sections are made of red brick. It has steep old red tile roofs and is two stories high with a cellar, consisting of three bays and three windows. The east side of the building juts out, and it is now accessed from the south, with an extension to the rear and a one-bay addition to the south, along with a single-storey T-shaped block of outbuildings linked on the west. The south porch is gabled.

The east side has 19th-century windows on either side of the door, featuring two lights with chamfered and stopped mullions that are unusually well-designed for their time. Above the red brick ground floor, there is yellow stock brick infill between the timber frames. A multangular central red brick chimney with a moulded cap and base is present. Inside, the northern part (No. 9) has a hall that is accessed by a passage behind the chimney, which includes an old rear door leading into the rear wing. On the south side of the passage, there is a beam with mortices for a partition and door, with a gap just beyond the central axial beam itself that also has partition mortices. The roof features clasped purlins with curved wind braces and shows evidence of partitions that correspond to those on the ground floor. Paired brackets under the jetty mark the entrance, and the mid-16th-century floor beams are finely moulded with rolls and hollows.