Aspenden Cottage

A house, dating from the late 15th century, originally an open hall house with a storeyed eastern crosswing. A 17th-century western wing was added, a floor inserted into the hall, and a lower service range built at the east. The house was renovated around 1800 and again in 1968.

The house is timber-framed with flint and brick sills, roughcast render, and a steep red tile roof. It originally had a T-plan open hall house with a parlour wing at the east. The 17th century saw alterations including a two-storey cellar and attics to the western crosswing, the old parlour converted to a kitchen, and a front jetty underbuilt. A one-storey and attic eastern service range was also added. The north-facing elevation features two gabled projecting wings of two storeys and attics, flanking a single-storey central section with a steep roof and deep eaves. A 3-light flush casement window is situated to the left of a c.1800 six-panel moulded door, which has a moulded surround with pilasters, double-curved brackets, a guttae, a dentilled cornice, and a flat-panelled hood. Three windows are on the east gable, one on each floor, with 2-light Yorkshire sliding casements above 3-light flush casements. The western wing’s attic has a 2-light casement, while the ground and first floors each have two flush box casements with 6/6 panes. The differently aligned eastern range has a steep roof that steps down towards the east. It includes two 2-light casements, with the eastern window featuring a 1700 moulded mullion, leaded lattice, and an iron casement. There is also a 2-light gabled dormer on the roof slope. Early 19th-century bargeboards and rectangular bay windows are at the rear.

A central chimney was inserted into the hall around 1800 and reduced in size at that time, with a staircase built beside it; this chimney was removed in 1968. Two external chimneys were added to the west end around 1800. A large, external chimney on the east side of the old eastern crosswing is enclosed within the lower eastern extension.

The interior includes exposed timbers with soot-blackened, two-bay, crown-post roof to the hall, a clasped-purlin roof to the east wing, and a butt-purlin roof to the 17th-century west wing. The ground floor of the east wing features a mortise for the former north jetty's central bracket, a bearer beam with mortices for a central post, and two 3-light diamond mullioned windows, as well as shutter grooves. A hollow-chamfered tie-beam with arched braces supports a 2-meter-high cruciform crown-post with 4-way curved braces. Also present is an early 19th-century cut-string stair with bracketed ends and a stick balustrade, and an axial curved brace to the collar-purlin from the plain crown-post in the hall’s east gable. The 17th-century west wing has tennoned rafters in a butt-purlin roof, and a chamfered and stopped door frame from the hall range to the attic. A face-halved and bladed scarf joint is visible on the east wallplate of the west wing, next to a jowled post. The house is an exceptional example of a 15th-century hall house, retaining many original features.