Cherry Tree Cottage

Cherry Tree Cottage is a house originally built as three separate cottages in the 17th century, with alterations made in the early 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of coursed local limestone rubble with partial ashlar stone dressings to openings on the front elevation. The roof is slate, and there are two brick chimney stacks. The building has three bays and two storeys, consisting of a main range with single storey extensions to the rear from the south-west end, and a long single storey outbuilding against the north-east boundary.

The main south-east facing elevation has sixteen-paned unhorned sash windows—two to the ground floor and three to the first floor, representing the three original cottages. The window to the ground floor of the third cottage at the east end has been replaced with double garage doors. The original arched entrance to the through passage is to the west of the garage doors, with a front door with glazed panels at the west end of this elevation. The rear elevation contains three two-light casement windows to the first floor and a central three-light casement to the ground floor. The arched through passage opening is to the east of this window. A small dormer is set in the roof. Extensions to the rear are lean-to structures built against the neighbouring house and boundary walls, comprising a smaller brick extension serving as a utility room and a larger extension now used as a kitchen.

Inside, although all ground floor rooms are now interconnected, the original three-room plan survives. Each room retains a fireplace; the fireplace in the west room (now dining room) has a new early 19th century style surround and grate, with new cupboards to the left of the fireplace. Chamfered beams are present in each of the two living rooms. The staircases of the middle and third cottages have been removed. The surviving staircase is an enclosed winder stair behind a plank and batten door with strap hinges, beside which is an understairs cupboard. The kitchen has been enlarged since 1955 to incorporate the whole of the rear extension and the smaller brick built extension beyond. The west wall of the kitchen contains a blocked doorway with a frame featuring shiplap joints. A loft hatch gives access to the roof space, where original horse hair tempered plaster from an earlier interior wall can be seen.

The first floor has three bedrooms, one for each original cottage. The bedrooms in the west and central rooms retain original stud walls. The east bedroom has a new stud wall creating an en suite bathroom. A stair to a converted attic room has been inserted from the landing at the west end. The roof has a ridge piece and rafters of sawn timber, possibly dating to the late 19th century when the original thatched roof was destroyed by fire.

The single storey outbuilding to the rear is built as a lean-to against the east boundary wall in two phases, represented by different materials—brick and stone—but covered by a single slate roof. The south-east end is brick construction with a tiled floor and brick fireplace.

Documentary evidence and examination of the building demonstrate that Cherry Tree Cottage was built in the 17th century as three cottages, with a through passage between the second and third cottages leading to a yard at the rear. Main entrances were probably to the rear or from the passage. Different stonework around the sash windows in the front elevation indicates these are later insertions, confirmed by two early prints, one dated to 1820. Both prints show the building with three-light stone mullioned windows partly set in pointed dormers, a steeply pitched thatched roof, and only a door to the through passage on the front elevation. The building has undergone at least three phases of renovation or alteration.

The earliest recognisable phase of renovation is represented by the early 19th century sash windows in the front elevation. Ordnance Survey maps from 1882 and later show the building remained three dwellings throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century. The plan of the extension and outbuildings, which may date to the late 18th or early 19th century, remained unchanged from at least the late 19th century. The formerly thatched roof is believed to have been destroyed by fire in 1880 and replaced with the present roof. The building remained as three cottages until the 1950s, when the first two were converted into one dwelling. The third cottage was incorporated in the 1960s to form a single house. This process involved the loss of two staircases, whilst the ground floor of the third cottage was converted into a garage with the front window replaced by double garage doors. The main recent change has been the removal of the south-west wall of the through passage to enlarge the living room.

In the 17th century much of Weston Underwood was owned by the Throckmortons, a recusant family (Roman Catholics refusing to attend services of the Church of England) whose manor house stood at the north end of the village; only the stable block of this house survives. The cottages may have been part of the Throckmorton estate, and their quality of construction has led to the suggestion that they were built as almshouses or for a similar purpose.