Stanley Villa And Emily Cottages

Stanley Villa and Emily Cottages are two connected houses. The western house, Standley Villa, dates from around 1620, while the eastern house, Emily Cottages, was built in the early to mid 19th century. Standley Villa is timber-framed and clad in brick, with a corrugated tile roof, whereas Emily Cottages is constructed of brick and has a pantiled roof.

Standley Villa has a through-passage plan. It is two storeys high with a single-window range to the south front, which is pebble-dashed over a 1950s brick skin. It features a central three-light 19th-century casement window on each floor and a 20th-century half-glazed doorway to the east. The north front has a half-glazed door to the left of an early 20th-century nine-paned window. An inserted two-light casement is found on the first floor, set within an exposed timber frame. The west return displays a late 17th-century brick skin with a mixed bond, including burnt headers, and two blocked square window openings on each floor, each with a hood mould and label stops. A rebuilt gable head is present, along with an internal gable-end stack. The visible purlins are remnants of a former clasped purlin roof.

Emily Cottages is a two-storey building with a three-window range. The south front has two- and three-light casements with segmental heads on the ground floor, and a half-glazed door positioned to the left of the centre. The window to the far left is part of Standley Villa. A dentil eaves cornice runs along the top. A ridge stack is located to the right of the centre. A plank door is found on the east gable end, below a two-light casement, and two further similar casements are present on the north return; the easternmost window sits within a blocked doorway.

The ground floor of Standley Villa features a spine beam running between a middle rail on the east side and a chimney rail to the west. This spine beam has sunk quadrant mouldings, terminating in jeweled tongue stops. The chamfered middle rails also have tongue stops. Chamfered joists with tongue stops are visible on their inner side. A full-width passage screen, located to the east, consists of 18 rectangular panels constructed in a masons' mitre style. The panels have incised decoration facing the main rooms and are plain towards the passageway. A door in the east of the passage leads into a room within the structure of Emily Cottages. A winder staircase is situated north of the stack, with a blocked window in the west gable. The first floor mirrors the ground floor with identical bridging beams and middle rails. The timber frame has jowled principal studs and close studded secondary studs. The roof was rebuilt in the late 19th century. Emily Cottages has plain interiors with plank doors, mid-20th century fire inserts, and an early 20th-century roof structure. Standley Villa is particularly notable for the survival of a fine passage screen and the high-quality timber detailing characteristic of the early 17th century Wymondham school of carpentry.