1-4 River Houses

MATERIALS: The ground floors are of sandstone rubble with handmade red brick quoins and the first floors are tile-hung, probably over a timber frame. The hipped roofs are tiled and have two square brick chimneystacks with moulded cornices, each shared by two cottages. The rear slope has a catslide roof to the ground floor.

PLAN: Nos.1-3 are of two-bays each but No. 4 is of three-bays with an additional brick lean-to extension, suggesting it was built for a worker of higher rank than the others, perhaps a foreman.

EXTERIOR: The principal front faces south-east and has later C19 wooden casements within the original window openings. Nos. 1-3 have plank doors with rectangular glazed panels within moulded wooden architraves. The doorcases to Nos. 1 and 2 are concealed behind later C20 porches with sandstone bases, glazed above with hipped tiled roofs. No. 4 has an early C20 gabled wooden porch on a brick base with a gabled tiled roof with wooden bargeboards. The solid wooden side walls have quatrefoil-shaped cutouts. The C19 brick lean-to addition has a ground floor small-framed metal-framed casement. The south-west side elevation has a C20 wooden bow window. The north-west, or rear elevation, has three courses of stretcher bricks at the top of the sandstone ground floor, C19 casement windows and plank doors. No. 2 has C20 tiles to the roof and No. 3 has a flat-roofed C20 dormer. No. 4 has a rear projection with an external brick chimneystack.

INTERIOR: No. 1 retains an open fireplace with wooden bressumer and breadoven and a further plank door on the ground floor. Similar features may survive in the other cottages.