Candleyards

Candleyards

A timber-framed cottage dating to around 1600, rendered under a steeply pitched pantile-clad roof with red brick chimney stacks. The building is listed Grade II.

The cottage follows a two-bay lobby entry plan with a central chimney stack and a rear lean-to structure against the south bay. It is one and a half storeys in height. The exterior timber framing, originally wattle and daub infill, has been mostly renewed. The steeply pitched roof is finished with plain timber bargeboards at the gable ends and has an off-centre rebuilt ridge stack.

The east elevation, which faces the road, features an off-centre door made of two wide planks with strap hinges. This is flanked by 20th-century three-light timber mullion windows in their original openings. The north and south gable ends are lit on the ground floor by 20th-century two-light timber mullion windows, also in original openings, and by small 20th-century eight-light casement windows above. The north gable end has a rebuilt projecting chimney stack. The rear west elevation is lit by a 20th-century two-light mullion window, with the lean-to pierced by a small 20th-century four-light single timber casement.

The interior retains a high proportion of the original timber frame, including corner posts, wall plates, and most of the sill beam (repaired in places). Almost all the full-storey-height wall frame panels are intact, revealing the former positions of doorways in the centre and outer corners of the east wall, and window openings in the north and south bays. A lintel in the south gable end contains two mortices indicating that the mullions once had diamond profiles.

The north bay ceiling, dating to the late 16th or early 17th century, has a chamfered bridging beam with flat stops and joists with a slight chamfer. The post supporting the west end of the bridging beam is not original. The south bay ceiling, dating to the late 17th century, also has a chamfered bridging beam and joists, with a knee brace supporting the east end and a non-original post at the west end.

The central red brick chimney hood has exposed plaster on the east side decorated with ochre, with traces of ochre decoration also visible on the north-east corner post. A fireplace opening exists in the north gable end, now plastered, with the supporting post to its left truncated. A curved upward brace connects the corner post and wall plate at the west end of the north gable. The studded plank and batten doors are later insertions in the original openings.

The lean-to retains its wall plate, corner posts, south-west and north-west wall posts, and a purlin, though it has been strengthened with additional timber members. The north wall has an additional straight upward brace. The west wall features substantial posts either side of the door and a middle rail, with closely-spaced posts above the rail on the north side of the door and exposed wattles below the rail on the south side.

The attic, accessed via a simple 21st-century timber stair in the south-east corner, retains wide rebated floorboards. The common rafter roof is of quite slender scantling with straight wind braces on the east pitch and clasped purlins. The original tie-beams have been removed to allow more headroom, though most of the later cambered tie-beams link the rafters above purlin height.

A 20th-century flat-roofed rear extension projecting from the north bay and an early 21st-century outbuilding abutting the west end of the north gable are not included in the listing.