Christmas Cottage

HOXNE GOLDBROOK TM 17 NE 17/160 Christmas Cottage GV II Small house, probably originally a wing to adjoining house, Old Thatch qv. Circa late C16 and C17 remodelled in circa mid to late C19 and repaired and altered in late C20. Timber-framed, rendered at rear and with English bond red brick right hand (north east) gable end; front wall rebuilt in mid to late C19 in Flemish bond red brick. Red clay pantile roof with gabled ends with plain bargeboards. Brick gable end stacks, the right hand C17 and both with C19 dia- gonally set brick shafts. Plan and development: 2-storey, 2-room plan, the larger right hand (north east) room and the chamber above heated from a gable end stack, the ground floor room with a large fireplace; the smaller left hand room was probably originally unheated. There is a blocked doorway in the back wall of the right hand room giving direct entry and the cottage was possibly built as a service wing to the rear of the adjoining main range (Old Thatch), described in the list as probably medieval. If so the wing might have been added in the late C16 and remodelled in the C17 when the large gable end stack was built. It was probably in the mid to late C19 that the whole range was sub-divided and the rear wing made into a separate cottage; a straight staircase was inserted between the 2 rooms rising from a front entrance lobby, and the roof and front wall were rebuilt and a stack was built at the left hand end. In late C20 the central staircase was taken out and a stair extension was built behind the right hand room. Exterior: 2 storey almost symmetrical 3-window south east front in C19 Flemish bond red brick with plinth and brick hoodmoulds to the windows. Mid to late C19 2-light casements with glazing bars and brick sills. Central doorway with C19 canopy on carved wooden braces and tiled lean-to roof and with C20 door. Right hand (north east) gable end in English bond brick has C17 4-light wooden diamond mullion window on first floor above a C20 casement on ground floor. Rear eleva- tion rendered and with C20 stair projection on left. Interior: Exposed wall studding and blocked doorway in rear wall of right hand room. Stud partition between rooms with large chamfered headbeam with hollow step stops. Right hand room has chamfered cross-beam with ogee and notch stops unchamfered joists and large brick fireplace with cambered chamfered timber lintel with run-out stops. The ceiling joists in the left hand room are replacements and the red brick fireplace is Victorian. In the rear wall of left hand room a small blocked window with 4 diamond mullions. The right hand chamber has a plastered brick fireplace with a chamfered 3-centred arch. On the first floor the jowled heads to the wall posts at the right hand end are exposed and there are cambered chamfered tie beams but the roof structure above was replaced in C19 re-using some old timber as purlin struts.

Listing NGR: TM1803876910