Orchard Cottage To East Of Number 98

Orchard Cottage is an early 18th century house, reportedly dating to 1719, with a later wing. It is located to the east of number 98 on Station Road. The main house is two storeys and has attics, with a gambrel roof. It is joined to a larger, single-storey gambrel-roofed wing on the east side. The lower part of the main house has a brick base and a brick gable on the west side. The upper part has rough plaster to the north front and a low wooden parapet with a moulded capping. The east gable is weatherboarded.

The roofs are covered in old red tiles, with slate eaves courses to the lower wing. A large internal gable stack, dated 1719, is on the east of the main house; a later internal stack is built into the brick west gable. There is an external lateral stack at the rear of the lower wing. The rear of the property features a white gault brick, slate-roofed, single-storey lean-to with a chimney at the west end and a three-light cast iron casement window with small panes.

The north front of the main house has two windows on each floor. Flat-topped dormers, each with six small panes, are present in the roof. Flush box sash windows with 6/6 panes are original on the ground floor, but have been renewed with horns on the first floor. The front door is off-centre to the east, and is half-glazed with six panes and two flush panels below, approached by three stone steps with moulded nosings. It is within a broad frame with a moulded architrave and a full entablature, a swelled frieze, and a flat cornice returned at the ends. A similar architrave frames the four-panelled, glazed door in the lower wing, next to the corner. A central sash window with a flush box and 6/6 panes is also in the lower wing. The east gable has a three-light flush wooden casement window with glazing bars.

Interior details suggest that the lower wing is older, with an axial and cross beam chamfered with concave stops. The interior of the main house retains exposed oak framework and remnants of raised and fielded panelling to the stair against the south wall to the west. The name ‘Orchard Cottage’ is said to derive from a Mr Orchard, and the property was marked ‘Orchard House’ on an Ordnance Survey map from 1879. The house appears to be a timber-framed building constructed in three periods and is considered picturesque, forming part of a group of buildings on the south side of the road.