Pear Tree Cottage

Pear Tree Cottage

A vernacular timber-framed house built in the 17th century, extended to the north in the mid-19th century and to the rear in the mid-20th century. The cottage has a thatched roof, timber-framed structure, and rendered walls.

The rectangular lobby-entry house stands one and a half storeys in height and faces west to Garboldisham Road. The pitched roof is covered with thatch and has an ornamental block ridge; the east and west wall plates are visible protruding from the south gable beneath the thatch. The principal west elevation is generally three bays wide with a central brick chimneystack and entrance, characteristic of a lobby-entry plan. The attic contains two wall dormers in the outer bays, each with a pitched plain-tile roof. The attic and ground floor windows are flat-arched and contain 20th century two-pane, side-hung timber casement windows. The central door opening is flat-arched with a four-panelled wooden door. An additional bay containing a kitchen was added to the north end of the principal elevation in the mid-19th century; the attached building to the north (The Last Straw, rebuilt in 1984) has a flying freehold of approximately 1.5 metres over this kitchen. Flint infill beneath the kitchen window indicates it was previously a door opening.

The south gable has a flat-arched window opening at ground floor level containing a fixed window; infill beneath the window indicates this was previously a door opening. The east part of the plinth was rebuilt with breeze blocks in the late 20th century. The rear east slope of the roof has a single wall dormer near the north end, and a flat-arched door opening near the south end contains a 20th century glazed door. A mid-20th century, single-storey, rectangular-plan extension with a gently sloping lean-to roof was added to the rear elevation.

The interior retains its lobby-entry plan form with a small lobby inside the front door and a two-bay room north and south of a substantial chimneybreast. Within the lobby, the wall opposing the entrance features two round-arched alcoves. The interior side of the door retains L-shaped hinges at its top and bottom left corners, indicative of an early 18th century date.

The south room retains a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue runout stops to its east and west ends, supported by chamfered posts. The exposed hand-sawn joists are chamfered with runout stops; the joists over the fireplace appear to have been replaced in the 20th century on a like-for-like basis. The sill plate is exposed in parts, though the plinth is concealed by cement render applied over wire mesh in the late 20th century. The floor is poured concrete. The fireplace is concealed by a secondary fireplace applied in the late 20th century. East and west of the fireplace are timber ledged and battened doors to a cupboard and the porch. Within the cupboard, the east side of the original chimneybreast is visible, along with the underside of the narrow historic stair with sloping bearers and a diagonal brace on the east wall.

The north room also retains a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue runout stops to the east and west ends; the north-east corner of the beam has been shaved to accommodate a later door opening. The fireplace retains a substantial bressumer, though the fire opening has been infilled and a secondary fireplace applied in the late 20th century. Sections of walling are exposed showing reed infill held by vertical laths. The north bay has a 20th century partition to a kitchen in the mid-19th century extension; the attached building to the north has a flying freehold over the north part of the kitchen. The first-floor floorboards of Pear Tree Cottage are visible in the south part of the kitchen ceiling. The north wall of the north room has a four-light casement window and door opening to the mid-20th century garden room and bathroom extension; the north-east corner post of the cottage is visible in the bathroom.

From the south-east corner of the north room, a stair rises along the east side of the chimneybreast to a first-floor landing. Off this landing is a large bedroom to the south and a corridor leading to two smaller bedrooms to the north-east and north-west. The timber-framed structure is exposed, with timber-pegged wall plates visible on the east and west walls and tie beams visible on the north and south gables. Each of the bedrooms has a timber ledged and battened door and wide floorboards.