Porch Cottage Widford Stores

Porch Cottage Widford Stores is a house that has been converted into a shop and residence. It dates from the late 17th century and was altered in the early 19th century. The building is timber-framed and plastered, sitting on a brick base, with a low-pitched slate roof that is hipped to the left. It is a long, two-storey structure with four windows, originally a wheelwright's house that included a workshop in the southern half, now known as Widford Stores. The layout consists of two rooms with an end chimney, featuring a large internal gable chimney at the north end.

Originally one and a half storeys, the building was raised to two full storeys during the early 19th century, when it was also re-windowed and re-roofed. The upper floor has flush box sash windows with moulded architraves and 8/8 panes, while the left-hand window has been altered to a small-paned two-light casement, similar to the two ground floor windows in the centre and at the north end. The shop has a two-panel half-glazed door with a small Victorian display window to the left, designed as an elongated sash window. To the right is a modern door for Porch Cottage, which has been recently moved from the extreme right and replaces a window. The building features a plastered soffit to the eaves overhang and a continuous drip board at the first-floor level. Inside Porch Cottage, there are chamfered and stopped axial beams, squared joists, jowled posts, and cambered tie beams in the bedroom partitions. This historic timber-framed house is part of a varied group located in the middle of the Conservation Area.