Ship Cottage

Ship Cottage is a house dating from the mid-16th century, with alterations from the late 17th to early 18th century, as well as changes made in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The structure features a timber frame with plastered wattle and daub infill, 19th-century weatherboard cladding, and a plain tile roof. The rear outshut is made of brick and weatherboard, partly covered with artificial slates. The building has two storeys and two bays, with an added rear outshut that has been partially heightened.

On the garden elevation, the windows are from the 20th century, including two large windows on the ground floor and four smaller windows on the first floor. The roof is hipped on the right side, and there are brick end stacks, with the left stack being extruded. The rear features a late 18th-century outshut that has been raised to two storeys on the left side, topped with a 19th-century gabled roof. There is also an attached single-storey wing on the left that is not of special interest.

The left return has a small window in the chimney, one to the right, and one to the left on the first floor. The outshut includes a 20th-century door within a 20th-century gabled porch, which is not of special interest. Inside, the timber frame has large scantling rails and beams, as well as jowelled wall posts. There is a full-height timber-framed partition between the bays, and the roof features lath and plaster infill. The former rear wall retains one arched tension brace and a three-light, wood-mullioned window on the first floor.

The left-hand room, which was the former hall, includes an inserted fireplace from the late 17th to early 18th century, with brick jambs, a chamfered timber bressummer, and a bread oven with a sliding board door. The old brick floor, large scantling spine-beam, and cross-beam with broad chamfers and lambs tongue stops are also notable. The old joists in this room may be reused rafters, and the floorboards are original. The roof features a central collared principal rafter truss, with rafters that reduce in size above the collar, raking queen struts, clasped purlins, and old rafters. There is an intermediate collar in the left bay, which shows smoke blackening towards the rear wall. According to The Rape of Hastings Architectural Survey, the hall was originally heated by a smoke cavity or timber chimney, and documentary evidence suggests that the cottage was built in 1567.