April Cottage

April Cottage is a house dating from the mid to late 14th century, with later alterations. It is constructed of timber framing and plaster, topped with a clay pantiled roof that features a brick ridge stack. The house has a three-unit plan with a former open hall and is a single storey with an attic, presenting a three-window range. The windows are various 20th-century casements with glazing bars. There is a 20th-century porch with a boarded door on the left and a part-glazed door on the right. A two-light gabled dormer is positioned above, and there is a lean-to structure on the left end.

Inside, much of the timber frame is exposed, showcasing widely spaced original studding with straight braces halved against the inner faces of the wallplates. Each wallplate features a stop-splayed scarf joint that is 0.8 meters long. Severe subsidence has led to partial rebuilding or restudding, particularly at the upper end. The hall has an open truss with steeply inclined, almost straight, tie beam braces. There is evidence of an additional tie beam in the lower bay of the hall, about 0.3 meters from the open truss. The front cross-entry doorway has a two-centre arch formed by a pair of surviving kneebraces. Evidence suggests there were originally 6-light hall windows with fairly narrow diamond mullions. An inserted floor in the hall includes a chamfered bridging beam and chamfered joists set flat. The upper floor at the parlour end was rebuilt around the 18th century, while the 17th-century side purlin roof was evidently reconstructed in the 20th century. The roof contains two pairs of heavily sooted rafters, one of which has housings for a low collar, indicating that the original roof may have been half-hipped. April Cottage is a rare example of a 14th-century house in this area.