Down Cottage

Down Cottage is a house, now divided into two homes, dating from the 17th century. It is a one and a half storey timber-framed structure with a plastered exterior, facing south, and features a low two-storey rear addition that is weatherboarded and was added in the 18th century when it was converted from three cottages into two houses. The front has a steep old red tiled roof with gables and three gabled dormers along the top. The rear slope of the roof is covered with red pantiles that extend over the rear addition.

The building has a three-unit former lobby-entry plan, with No 21 serving as the hall and parlour, while No 23 contains the service room, which still shows the mortices of an axial partition in its chamfered and stopped axial beam. There is a large central chimney with back-to-back fireplaces in No 21, and a later external gable chimney on No 23. The front is plastered and features two-light casement windows in the three dormers, an 18th-century plate casement window in No 23, and a three-light wooden casement window in each house. No 21 has a blocked doorway with a two-light casement, while No 23 has a four-panel flush beaded door from the 19th century and a modern boarded door with renewed windows.

A continuous dripboard on shaped brackets runs over the ground floor openings. The timber-framed structure is unusually wide and is exposed in both houses, with unjowled posts and straight tension bracing. The stairs rise against the original rear wall, and there is an axial floor beam with squared joists. The hall features a chamfered lintel over the open fireplace. This historic 17th-century central chimney house is of special interest and is part of a picturesque group in the centre of the village Conservation Area.