Lark Cottage Middle Cottage School View Cottage

The following item shall be added:-

TM 37 SE CRATFIELD SCHOOL CORNER

2/143 LARK COTTAGE (Formerly 1 & 2 School View Cottages), Middle Cottage and School View Cottage

GV II

A row of cottages, formerly 4, now 3, although Lark Cottage and Middle Cottage originally formed one house. Marked on OS map as School View. Mid to late C16, with extensions at the south end. 2 storeys. Timber-framed and rendered with black glazed pantiled roof. Fluted bargeboards. 2 end chimney-stacks set within the gable ends and one internal stack, all with plain rebuilt shafts of old brick. 5 window range, old 4-light casements with transomes and C19 Tudor hood-moulds. A small enclosed and gabled porch to Lark Cottage, a C20 traditional plank door with hood-mould and decorative ironwork to Middle Cottage, and a C20 side entry to School View Cottage. Lark Cottage interior in 3 bays, divided into a service room and a 2-bay hall. The partition between hall and service is altered, and contains one blocked doorway and the possible site of a stair door. Hall ceiling with exposed joists with wide chamfer and curved stops with bar; main beam with a double roll-moulding and cut-off stops. The internal chimney-stack may have been preceded by a timber-framed chimney, but the frame is designed with a narrow chimney-bay. On the rear wall of the hall the deep sill of what may have been an oriel window, with another in the corresponding position in the hall chamber above. On the upper floor the room over the service area has housings for diamond-mullioned windows on front, rear and gable walls; some mullions replaced. Both wallplates have edge-halved and bladed scarf joints, and the wall-braces are reversed. Queen-post roof, open above the hall chamber: plain, square posts, thin plank braces to arcade plates and cambered collars. Cambered tie-beams with arched braces removed. Middle Cottage was originally the parlour end of the house, in one long bay. On the ground floor, the ceiling has plain unchamfered joists set flat and a large main beam with chamfer, curved stops and bar. The fireplace has a plain timber lintel with evidence for studding above it. The brickwork surrounding the hearth is C18. A 4-light diamond-mullioned window on the rear wall. On the upper floor, a 4-light diamond-mullioned window on front and back walls. A queen-post truss at each end of the room, and an intermediate collar to the arcade plates. School View Cottage is probably a C17 or C18 extension on the gable end of Middle Cottage; on the rear wall on the first floor is a blocked 4-light window with diamond or triangular section mullions. Various extensions to the rear of each cottage relate to the initial conversion into a cottage row.

Listing NGR: TM3149375056