Oliver's Hill

Oliver's Hill is a pair of mid-18th century cottages now in single ownership, constructed as timber-framed structures clad in weatherboarding with a tiled half-hipped roof and central brick chimneystack. The building has undergone alteration in the 20th century but retains significant original features.

Each cottage originally comprised one storey and attics, with two rooms on each floor arranged around the shared central chimneystack. The south-west front elevation displays two gabled dormers with 19th century or earlier metal casements fitted with leaded lights. The ground floor has four 20th century metal casements and a gabled porch. Both the north-west and south-west gable ends retain 19th century or earlier metal casements with leaded lights and pintle hinges. The north-west side includes a fixed 20th century 12-pane casement at ground floor level, whilst the south-east elevation also has a 20th century ground floor window. The north-eastern side is weatherboarded on its southern half, but the northern part exposes original framing with a midrail and diagonal brace. A later 20th century flat-roofed porch occupies the centre of the south-western front, a 20th century extension extends to the south-east, and a large brick extension projects to the north-east; these later additions are not of special architectural interest.

Internally, ceilings were heightened during the 1960s to provide increased headroom. The northern ground floor room displays the original north-western corner posts and horizontal beams to the north-west and south-west sides, though the ceiling beams have been replaced at a higher level. The penultimate room to the north contains an open fireplace with a wooden bressumer and shelf on brackets, set within a brick surround in English bond. This surround incorporates a blocked cambered opening for a bread oven, now removed. Two wallposts remain visible in this bay, though intermediate timbers were removed when the 1960s extension was added. The heightened ceiling exposes floor joists running perpendicular to the northern room, and the north wall's exposed timbers reveal the original ceiling height. The penultimate room to the south also has an open fireplace with a wooden bressumer, fitted with renewed brickwork. The floor joists here run in the same direction as those in the adjoining room to the north. The south room retains an 18th or early 19th century brick floor. The attic contains the top of the central brick chimneystack, remains of a lath and plaster partition between the two original cottages, lath and plaster covering applied over rafters, and exposed purlins and timbers visible within the gable ends.

Ordnance Survey maps of 1876, 1899 and 1909 show a building on this site divided into two cottages and named Oliverhill Cottage. Plans from the 1960s confirm that the roof was then thatched.

Oliver's Hill was constructed as two timber-framed, weatherboarded, thatched cottages in the mid-18th century. The plan form of two rooms per floor with shared central chimneystack remains legible, and the timber frame is relatively complete except where it adjoins the later 20th century extension. Surviving features of interest include four 19th century or earlier metal casements, open fireplaces and a brick floor. As a pre-1840 building retaining a large proportion of its original fabric and plan form, Oliver's Hill is of special interest in the national context.