Holmdale Cottages

Two attached cottages, likely dating to the mid-18th century and late 18th or early 19th century respectively, are situated in Rye Foreign. The cottages have undergone 20th-century replacement of windows and one has an outshot. Weatherboarded extensions to the north and south are considered modern and not of special interest.

No. 1, Holmdale Cottages, is timber-framed and clad in weatherboarding, with a hipped tiled roof and a central brick chimneystack. The building features a central chimney and staircase, and contains two rooms on each floor. The south-facing front has three windows, while the north side has a hipped two-story section to the east and a western outshot with a catslide roof. The windows are modern wooden casements set within their original openings. The central front door on the south side has four flush panels with glazed panes inserted into the upper sections of the top panels, and a flat wooden hood above. Inside, the western ground floor room has an open fireplace with a wooden bressumer, a brick surround including a salt hole, and a central stop-chamfered spine beam with run-out stops. A ledged plank door leads to a narrow hall containing a steep winder staircase with slender turned balusters and a moulded newel post to the landing. The eastern room is accessed through a two-panel door and features a central stop-chamfered spine beam, a visible wall plate, and an eastern wall with closely spaced upright posts and diagonal braces.

No. 2, Holmdale Cottages, is timber-framed, mostly weatherboarded, although the south side is rendered with incised lines to resemble masonry. The south portion has a gabled tiled roof with an external brick chimneystack, while the north portion has a tiled roof with two gables. It is a single-story, two-bay cottage with an end chimneystack. It's believed to have been either a kitchen extension to No. 1 or constructed as a separate cottage. It has two windows facing south and two facing north, both with modern wooden casements in original openings. Internally, the eastern room has an open fireplace with a wooden bressumer, a central axial beam, and thin internal partition walls with diagonal braces. The north part of the building has rustic pole partition walls.

Historical records show No. 1 on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map, while No. 2 is depicted as a separate cottage.

No. 1 Holmdale Cottages is considered particularly significant due to its well-preserved vernacular construction from the mid-18th century and its retention of original internal features. No. 2, a late 18th or early 19th century building, retains a readable plan form, a visible open fireplace, and internal partition walls. Together with its grouping with No. 1, these factors contribute to its special interest.