Walnut Tree Cottage

Walnut Tree Cottage is a house that dates back to the 15th century, or possibly the 14th century, with significant alterations made in the early 17th century. It features an open hall house design with a cross-wing to the left, constructed in the late 16th or early 17th century. The cottage is one storey high with attics, while the cross-wing is two storeys. It is timber-framed and encased in late 19th-century brick, which is now painted. The roof is thatched and half-hipped to the right. There is an axial chimney that has been rebuilt in 19th-century gault brick. The building has two 19th-century eyebrow dormers with small-pane casements, and late 19th-century windows with segmental heads, featuring either small panes or leaded lights. A 19th-century thatched lean-to entrance porch leads to a 20th-century panelled door.

Inside, the open hall has exceptionally modest framing and is a rare example of its type. The open truss includes a tiebeam with curved chamfered square-sectioned archbraces. At the upper end of the hall, there is a closed truss with widely spaced studding and long slender arch windbraces. Evidence of an open-hall window can be seen in the rear wall. The right-hand cell, known as the parlour, has unchamfered first-floor joists. A chimney was added in the late 16th or early 17th century, backing onto the cross-passage. A first floor was inserted in the hall during the 17th century, featuring chamfered joists, and the roof was rebuilt in a side-purlin form. The cross-wing was constructed in the late 16th or early 17th century, with chamfered elm floor joists complementing reused earlier unchamfered oak joists. There is also evidence of a diamond-mullioned window.