Lilac Cottage

Lilac Cottage is a small, three-cell open-hall house dating from the late 14th or early 15th century, with significant alterations made in the 17th and later centuries. The house is one storey high with attics. It has a timber frame and is plastered, with large areas of herringbone pargeting in panels. Above the entrance is an oval bearing an indistinct date of either 1768 or 1788, accompanied by a pair of hearts. The roof is thatched, although the right-hand side has been renewed with pantiles. A red brick axial chimney, likely dating to the 17th or 18th century, has been repaired in the mid-20th century. A small-pane casement window, dating to around 1800, is present to the right of the entrance, complete with a hinged boarded shutter. Various other casement windows from the 19th and 20th centuries are also visible. The entrance door is boarded and dates from around 1800. Lilac Cottage is an unusually early example of a modest medieval house. The central open truss in the hall has been depleted, but retains near-straight square-section arch-braces rising to the stump of the tie-beam. At the right-hand end, the closed truss originally rose only to eaves level, facilitating smoke entry into the loft space above the right-hand cell. The other closed truss in the hall extended to the ridge. Both end cells contain lodged 1st floor joists. The studwork is widely spaced and features arch-bracing at the corners. A substantial chimney was inserted into the hall in the 17th century, the roof was rebuilt, and an upper floor was constructed over the hall. Intermediate studding was introduced to the external walls. In the 18th or 19th century, a second flue was added to the chimney stack, and the adjacent closed truss was almost destroyed. A mid-20th century fire damaged part of the roof, which had previously been hipped at the right-hand side.