Spring Cottage

Spring Cottage is a house dating from the late 16th or possibly early 17th century, with alterations in the later 17th century and subsequent periods. The ground floor is built of rubblestone, with timber framing and plastered wattle and daub infill. The ground floor front is underbuilt in the late 18th or early 19th century with pinkish brick in a Flemish bond, while the first floor of the front and right return are tile-hung with pointed tiles (likely dating to the late 19th century). The roof is tiled. Originally a two-bay structure with a smoke bay at the left end, a chimney was inserted in the smoke bay around the second half of the 17th century, and a bay was added to the left end, also probably in the 17th century. A late 20th-century outshut addition at the right end and a conservatory at the left end are not of particular interest.

The front elevation features a mid-to-late 20th-century gabled porch on the right. To its left are three diamond-leaded casement windows of 2, 2, and 3 lights. The second window fills a bricked-up former doorway which is aligned with a chimney stack. Above are two 2-light, small-pane, 20th-century casements. A roof skylight is present, and the roof is hipped on the left, over the added bay, with a brick stack at the left end. The rear elevation displays timber framing on the first floor, with a midrail and tall panels and slightly curved lower tension braces. There are three windows on each floor, fitted with 20th-century small-pane casements. The central ground floor window is bracketed out under a pent roof, while those on the first floor are small and likely in original window openings. A skylight is visible on the left. The right return has a 2-light attic window with an old, diamond-leaded iron-framed left-hand light.

Inside, the timber frame incorporates jowelled posts, curved lower tension braces, and a framed partition between the right-hand bays on both the ground and first floors. A central ground floor bay features a large scantling spine-beam with a broad chamfer and lambs tongue stops, along with similarly-stopped joists. The chimney is constructed of large sandstone blocks and includes a fireplace with a chamfered timber bressummer and two alcoves at the rear. A first floor room above this has old, broad floorboards, a brick fireplace with an old, board, strap-hinged cupboard door to the left, and a front wall plate with mortices indicating a former 6-light ovolo-moulded wood mullion window (two mullions remain). A right-hand first floor room has a large-scantling chamfered spine-beam. The attic has a raised floor, and the window in the right gable shows mortices from a former 3-light window with diamond-set wood mullions. The roof has queen-post trusses, with the exception of a raking queen-strut truss between the right-hand bays (allowing for easy passage). Clapsed purlins and straight windbraces are also present. Within the former smoke bay, the roof timbers and plaster are smoke-blackened.