Croft House Rose Cottage

Croft House and Rose Cottage are two dwellings of early 16th-century origin, located on the west side of Water Lane in Rickinghall Inferior. A large chimney stack was inserted in the late 16th century, and the house was extended in the mid-17th century. The front was partially cased in brick during the mid-19th century and altered in the 20th century. The house is timber-framed and plastered with some sections cased in red brick, and it has a thatched roof that was originally half-hipped at both ends. It originally comprised four bays, likely with an open hall and storeyed ends, with one bay added at the service end. The right-hand bay is brick-cased and contains a three-light casement window. To the left is a lean-to outshut covered by a corrugated sheet roof. A chimney stack is positioned behind the ridge, to the left of centre. The left-hand end attic window is a three-light, part-glazing-bar casement. The right gable end is brick-cased, featuring an added stack and a lean-to outshut. The rear of the upper end is plastered and brick-cased, with a door to the original service bay, 20th-century two and three-light casement windows, and dormers. Inside the upper end, there's a stop-chamfered cross axial binding beam resting on jowled storey posts; the rest of the frame is concealed and not inspected. A blocked doorway marks the original cross entry position. The original lower bay appears to have had a loft without a partition to the hall. Traces of a four-light diamond mullioned window are visible in the original right-end wall, and reverse curved arched bracing is present in the walling, along with stop-chamfered wall plates. The roof is a simple coupled rafter type, with faint traces of smoke blackening. The 17th-century bay has through tension bracing.