Thatched Cottage At Orchard House

OLNEY

1115/0/10002 HIGH STREET 14-JAN-09 67 AND 69 Thatched Cottage at Orchard House

GV II Cottage, now garden feature; date unknown, probably C17 or C18. Stone rubble with brick dressings and some timber framing; thatched roof.

PLAN: Single-storey rectangular building with through passage under continuous thatched roof. A tall chimney is set into the west slope of the roof.

EXTERIOR: The north gable end has red brick dressings to quoins and openings, of which there are three: a small window under the apex of the roof, a large window with diamond leaded panes, and a door which give access to the room north of the passage. There is also a door to the south end in the south wall of the through passage. The through passage is arched and timber framed. The garden path from the back door passes through the passage.

INTERIOR: The north room is unplastered except for the south wall and arched ceiling. It contains a brick fireplace, and there are brick surrounds to the windows.

HISTORY: Orchard House was converted from two C18 houses, Nos. 67 and 69 High Street, in 1904 for Joseph William Mann, the boot and shoe manufacturer, at that time Olney's largest employer; the architect was Alexander Ellis Anderson.

The 1882 Ordnance Survey map shows Nos. 67 and 69 High Street, soon to become Orchard House, behind which are a complex of garden boundaries and a possible orchard; the Thatched Cottage appears to sit against the rear boundary of No.67 High Street, with a small section projecting into the neighbouring garden to the south, No. 65 High Street. Although the date of the cottage is not known, it is shown on the map in its present form. After the conversion of the two houses into one the gardens extended as far as West Street to the rear and were later landscaped by Perkin's Nurseries in Northampton, using the stone thatched cottage as an eye-catching feature. The red brick quoins and window surrounds in the north elevation suggest that it may have been restored or renovated by AE Anderson, echoing his extensions to the rear of Orchard House. The cottage has recently been re-thatched.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Thatched Cottage at Orchard House is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is an C18 or earlier building later incorporated as a picturesque feature into the design of the garden of Orchard House, (Grade II*), with which it has group value.