3-6 Bury Road

3-6 Bury Road

This timber-framed building was likely constructed in two phases during the late 17th or early 18th century, and was later subdivided into four cottages. It is constructed with lime plaster render over a red brick plinth, and formerly had thatched roofs with water reed and ornamental scalloped ridges, which were destroyed by fire in 2022.

The building is roughly L-shaped in plan. It comprises a front range aligned north-east to south-west abutting Bury Road, containing No 5 and part of No 4, and an attached perpendicular rear range aligned north-west to south-east, containing No 3 and part of No 4. No 6 was built in the east return and extends north-east.

The building is one-and-a-half storeys in height, with the roof of the front range marginally higher than the rear range. Both ranges are pitched and were formerly thatched with water reed, with an ornamental scalloped ridge, though these were destroyed by fire in 2022. The front range has an axial red brick chimneystack to the north-east of centre, two wall dormers to the north-west slope, and a carved bargeboard to the south-west gable. The rear range roof has an axial red brick chimneystack to its ridge and two wall dormers to the front south-west elevation. No 6 has a tall red-brick chimneystack to the rear.

The south-west gable of the front range, facing Bury Road, features a decorative scalloped bargeboard, a two-light attic window and a four-light ground-floor window, both with hoodmoulds and containing pointed-arched metal-framed casement windows with octagonal leaded panes. To the left, a single-storey single-bay lean-to porch was added in the late 19th century, with a thatched roof, a half-glazed door with a segmental canopy, and a metal-framed casement window to the side with latticed leaded lights. The north-west side of the front range has two attic dormers, each with two-light metal-framed casement windows in wooden frames containing latticed leaded lights. Two ground-floor windows are present: one is a metal-framed three-light casement window in a wooden frame with octagonal leaded panes, and the other is a single casement with a latticed leaded light. The south-east side of the front range has a metal-framed casement window to the stairwell and a wide, curved, single-storey thatched canopy supported by timber posts. Under the canopy is a porch with a timber-panelled door, and a single-storey lean-to kitchen extension with a timber-panelled door and a two-light metal-framed casement window.

The attached rear range is marginally lower than the front range and has entrances to No 3 and No 4 on its front south-west elevation facing Bury Road, each under a segmental canopy. The door to No 3 is half-glazed and the door to No 4 is ledged and braced with original door furniture. Both cottages have a gabled dormer and a ground-floor window containing a two-light casement window with latticed leaded lights. The upper part of the north-west gable was removed following the 2022 fire and retains a single ground-floor window with decorative coloured glass set behind an outer secondary fixed light in a wooden surround. The south-east gable and the thatched roof of its attached single-storey porch, added in the 1970s, were destroyed by fire in 2022; a three-light timber-framed casement window survives to the right of the porch. The rear north-east elevation has a single-storey rear projection behind No 6, with a pitched pantile roof and a tall red-brick chimney. Nos 3 and 4 share a single-storey rear projection with a flat roof, timber-framed casement windows and part-glazed timber doors, all destroyed in the fire.

Interior

Across all four cottages, the interior oak roof structure above the wall plate, a high proportion of the first-floor structure and floor joists, stanchion posts, timber stud partition walls between first-floor bedrooms, staircases, and ledged doors were destroyed by fire in 2022.

No 5, in the south-west end of the front range, has an interior in the late 19th-century porch decorated with coloured floor tiles. This leads to two reception rooms with open stud partitions and a continuous oak beam resting over an inglenook fireplace on the north-east wall, with ledged timber doors. The rear room retains a pamment floor. From the north-east corner of the roadside room, a winder stair rises to a landing and two bedrooms at first-floor level, damaged by fire.

No 6, in the return between the ranges, has two ground-floor rooms: a living room with a chamfered oak beam and a small altered fireplace on the north-east wall, and a kitchen to the rear with a pamment floor. In the south-east corner of the living room, a winder stair rises to a first-floor landing with a bedroom to the north-east side and a smaller bedroom to the south-west side, destroyed by fire in 2022.

The rear range contains No 3 and part of No 4. They share a chimneystack on their central wall. The ground floor rooms of each cottage have a chamfered oak beam resting over an inglenook fireplace with a chamfered wooden bressummer. Cupboards to either side of the fireplace, likely representing the former location of a door on one side and a stair on the other, have ledged timber doors. The ground floor of No 3 appears to have been extended slightly to the north-west, possibly to infill under a first-floor jetty. Nos 3 and 4 share a single-storey range to the rear, both containing a kitchen, dining room and bathroom, destroyed in the fire. From the north-west corner of No 3 and south-east corner of the dining room of No 4, stairs rise to the first-floor bedrooms, not accessible due to fire damage.

Part of No 4 extends into the north-east end of the front range and contains a living room with a chamfered oak beam resting over a cast-iron fireplace on the south-west wall. A ledged door in the south-west corner provides access to a winder stair rising to a first-floor bedroom over, not accessible due to fire damage.