Down Cottage

TL 4114 HUNSDON HIGH STREET (west side) Hunsdon village

7/20 No 21 NO 23 (Down Gottage) -

GV II

House, now 2 houses. C17. One and a half storeys timberframed plastered house facing S with timberframed weatherboarded low 2 storeys rear addition in C18 when 3 cottages, now 2 houses. Steep old red tiled front slope to gabled roof with 3 gabled dormers along the wall-head. Rear slope of red pantiles extends over rear addition. 3-unit former lobby-entry plan with No 21 representing hall and parlour: No 23 the service room with mortices of an axial partition in its chamfered and stopped axial beam. Large central chimney with back-to-back fireplaces in No 21. Later external gable chimney to No 23. Plastered front with 2-light casement windows in the 3 dormers. C18 plate casement to No 23. 3-light wooden casement window to each house, 2-light casement in blocked doorway in No 21. 4-panel flush beaded C19 door to No 23 and modern boarded door and renewed windows to No 21. Continuous dripboard on shaped brackets over Ground floor openings. An unusually wide span timberframed structure exposed in both houses. Unjowled posts and straight tension bracing. Stairs rise against original rear wall. Axial floor beam with squared joists. Chamfered lintel to open fireplace in hall. An historic C17 3-unit central chimney house of special interest. Part of a picturesque group in the centre of the village Conservation Area.

Listing NGR: TL4169514085