Keeper's Cottage

Keeper's Cottage

A timber-framed cottage of 17th-century or earlier date, extended around 1890, 1910, 1979, and 1989. The roofs are covered in red plain tile, and the timber-framed walls are faced in brick and roughcast.

The house is roughly rectangular on plan, aligned north-east to south-west, and faces south-east towards Lower Road. A two-storey three-bay cottage forms the core, with a pitched plain-tile roof and a pair of tall diagonal red-brick axial chimneys slightly left of centre, each having brick spurs to their bases and corbelled caps. A lower red-brick internal chimney sits to the north-east end of the front slope. The front elevation has three bays on the first floor of recessed wooden two-light casement windows with four panes each, and two bays on the ground floor of two-light casement windows with nine panes each; the ground floor window openings are segmental arched with timber applied sills over brick. A single-storey gabled porch was added to the central bay around 1979, built of red brick with a plain-tile roof. It contains a six-panel door with glazing to the two top panels, and a glazed four-paned window to each side.

On the north-east side, a single-storey lean-to extension was added around 1910 with a plain-tile roof, roughcast walls, and casement windows. A two-storey gabled extension was added to the rear north-east elevation around 1890, with two-light casement windows to the first floor (eight panes each) and three ground floor casements (four panes each). A single-storey lean-to projects from the centre of the rear elevation with a plain-tile roof and a four-paned casement on its south-west side, now enclosed within a sunroom added in the late 20th century. Above the sunroom, the first floor has a small four-paned casement window. A two-bay single-storey garage extension was added to the south-west side around 1989 and converted to living accommodation around 1997. The wooden casements of the extensions imitate those of the earlier cottage.

Internally, the cottage likely originally had a two-unit cross-passage plan, subsequently altered and extended. The lobby features applied joists above the entrance, nailed into place, and a straight stair rising along the north-east side of the axial chimneystack. The door surround shows evidence of reuse from elsewhere, including an empty brace socket on its north side. Upward past the stair is a blocked pointed-arched door opening with plain chamfered spandrels, indicating reconfiguration of the staircase.

South-west of the lobby, the sitting room contains a substantial chamfered beam with a lamb's tongue moulded stop above the fireplace. The joists are exposed with carpenters' marks and lamb's tongue stops; some appear to be machine-cut later replacements. A large inglenook fireplace occupies the centre of the north-east wall, featuring a chamfered wooden bressummer above and a stop to the south end. The fireplace is rendered and contains two slate-covered benches.

North-east of the lobby, the dining room has an exposed beam chamfered on its south side; empty sockets and plug holes on its downward face suggest it may have been reused from elsewhere. The exposed joists are hand-cut. Brick infill to the south side of the doorway appears to be of late 20th-century construction or reconstruction.

To the rear, the breakfast room, likely constructed around 1890, retains a wooden door surround to the former single-bay rear projection, now the pantry. The single-storey extension to the north-east, added around 1910, was renovated in the late 1970s to provide a kitchen, utility room, and WC.

The staircase rises from the lobby alongside the north-east side of the chimneystack, the brickwork of which appears to have been reconstructed in the late 20th century. At the stair top, exposed wooden partitioning to the north-east side appears to have been reused from elsewhere. The south-west bedroom retains exposed box framing, likely originally open to the roof with a ceiling inserted in the late 20th century. Timber framing on the north-east wall appears most recent and retains carpenters' marks. A walk-in wardrobe off the north-east side has exposed timber framing on its north-east wall. The north-east bedroom has a central chamfered beam, with the south-west end resting on a jowl post showing evidence of reuse or reworking. The north-east wall retains two inbuilt cupboards. The late 19th-century extension to the rear contains no historic features of interest. A high proportion of ledged wooden doors survive throughout the interior and are likely of late 19th or early 20th-century date.