Brickfield Cottages

Brickfield Cottages is a range of three cottages built in 1853. They were designed by the Prince Consort to provide housing for workers at the nearby Queen’s brickyard. The cottages are in a Gothic style and constructed of red brick with stone dressings, topped with slate roofs. They feature ornamental fretted bargeboards and three brick chimneys with paired stacks set diagonally. The design is H-shaped, with one storey and attics, and originally had four windows. The windows are metal casements with leaded lights; the windows in number 2 were replaced in the 20th century.

The front elevation has a recessed central section with two gabled dormers and two larger casement windows below. Cottages number 2 and 3 both retain doorcases with original arched plank doors, sheltered by a penticed verandah with a slate roof supported on four wooden piers with elaborate curved braces. Projecting gables are present at each end, each with one casement window to each floor. The side elevations include two gabled dormers and two casement windows to the ground floor. The rear elevation originally mirrored the front but lacked the verandah. 20th-century extensions have been added to the rear.

Inside number 2, the original staircase with stick balusters and column newels, a hexagonal terracotta paved floor, and internal partitions to the kitchen, living room and hall have been preserved. The interiors of numbers 1 and 3 were not inspected.

These cottages represent an interesting example of brickyard worker housing designed in a Gothic style by HRH Prince Albert. John Chalmers Morton's "Prince Consort Farms" (1863) provides further background.