Ship Cottage

TQ 92 SW PLAYDEN HOUGHTON GREEN LANE (south-west side, off) 16/79 Ship Cottage

II

House, mid-C16 with late C17/early C18, C18, C19 and C20 alterations. Timber frame with plastered wattle and daub infill, C19 weatherboard cladding and plain tile roof; rear outshut of brick and weatherboard, partly roofed in artificial slates. 2 storeys, 2 bays with added rear outshut, part heightened. Garden elevation: windows are C20: two large late C20 windows to ground floor; 4 smaller lst-floor windows. Roof hipped on right. Brick end stacks, that on left extruded. Rear: C18 outshut raised to 2 storeys on left side, C19 under gabled roof; attached single-storey wing on left not of special interest. Left return: a small window in chimney, one to right, both on ground floor, and one to left on 1st floor; outshut has C20 door in C20 gabled porch (not of special interest). Interior: timber frame has large scantling rails and beams and jowelled wall posts; full-height timber-framed partition between bays, in roof having lath and plaster infill; former rear wall retains one arched tension brace and a 3-light, wood-mullioned, 1st floor window. Left-hand room (former hall) has: inserted fireplace (late C17/early C18) with brick jambs, chamfered timber bressummer, and bread oven with sliding board door old brick floor; large-scantling spine-beam and cross-beam with broad chamfers and lambs tongue stops. Old joists (in left room probably being reused rafters) and floorboards. Roof: central collared principal rafter roof truss, the rafters reducing in size above collar; raking queen strut, truss in left gable; clasped purlins; old rafters; intermediate collar in left bay which has smoke blackening at left end, but only towards rear wall. The Rape of Hastings Architectural Survey (Report No 583) suggests that the hall was originally heated by a smoke cavity or timber chimney, and records that the cottage was built in 1567 (from documentary evidence).

Listing NGR: TQ9247822637