Black House Cottages South East Of Witherenden Stores

Black House Cottages, located southeast of Witherenden Stores, is a pair of cottages that may have originally served as a farmhouse, dating from the 17th century or earlier. The cottages feature cement render with brick underbuilding and weatherboarding on the north gable, concealing a timber frame structure, topped with an old tile roof. They are two storeys high with bays; the ground floor includes two 20th-century steel frame windows, while the first floor has three 2-light wooden casement windows. There are also two boarded doors. The steeply pitched roof has hiplets, and there is a 19th-century external stack at the south, along with a massive built-in brick stack positioned between bays two and three. The original layout likely included either a lobby entrance or a cross passage to the south, which was divided into separate dwellings in the 19th century. The southern bay displays exposed timber framing on the first floor, featuring gabled angle posts, massive mid-rails, and wall plates, with joints either pegged or scarved. Timber-framed partitions are located on either side of the stack on the first floor. There is no access to the roof or to bays one and two.