25, Holloway Lane

No. 25 Holloway Lane is a cottage dating from around 1600, with a small 19th-century rear extension acting as a scullery. The house is timber framed with a brick base and has a steeply pitched roof covered in old plain tiles. The exterior is a mix of rendered areas and 20th-century cement panels with timber battens. The plan is a two-cell arrangement, with a substantial stack rebuilt at the top, located at the south end, and a gable entrance to the left of the stack. An internal staircase rises between the front and rear rooms, accessible via a door in the rear room, now a kitchen. The timber frame is mostly plastered over, but visible internally in the coal hole, and between the front and rear cells on both floors. Corner posts and wall plates are also visible. Inside, exposed spine beams run north-south across the ground floor rooms, with stop-chamfered spines with run-out stops in the parlour. The upper storey rises into the roof; roof purlins are visible only beneath the eaves. Two windows on the upper floor retain original oak surrounds; the window on the west side of the south room has two original oak diamond mullions and a surviving circa 18th-century wrought iron casement window; the window on the east side of the north room has one surviving original oak diamond mullion and traces of further sawn-off timber mullions, with a surviving circa 18th-century wrought iron casement window. Other windows feature 20th-century plate glass, but the window openings are likely of original size. A simple 18th-century fireplace is located in the parlour, with a horizontal brass plate fixed below the shelf. An early, probably original, vertical planked door is found on the upper floor of the south room, featuring wrought iron hinges, latch, and handle. Other woodwork dates to the late 18th century, including the staircase door set within a vertical boarded timber wall, and an adjacent door to the coal hole, along with doors to the store beneath the stairs and the dividing door between the parlour and kitchen; all with wrought iron hinges. A circa late 18th-century dresser with three shelves is fixed to the east wall of the kitchen. The cottage is a good example of a modest dwelling type that is now relatively rare.