Mill Cottage

A late 18th-century cottage, possibly with earlier mill use and built on earlier foundations. The base of the building is constructed of sandstone blocks, above which the walls are Flemish bond brickwork incorporating vitrified headers arranged in a diaper pattern. The roof is pegtiled, hipped to the north east and half-hipped to the north west. There are three chimney stacks on the north east side, two of which are external; the western one is truncated above ridge level.

The cottage is two storeys high and has three irregularly-spaced windows on the south east side, notably none on the north west side, and blocked openings on the south west side. The south east elevation features a twelve-pane sash window on the first floor to the left, a six-pane sash in the centre, and an eight-pane sash to the right, all with cambered heads. The ground floor has a sixteen-pane sash to the left, a twelve-pane sash to the centre, and two 19th-century wooden casement windows to the right. A six-panel door, with the top two panels glazed, is set within a wooden architrave. A 20th-century trelliswork porch has been added. Two large iron ties with curved ends are visible on the south east elevation and correspond with identical ties on the rear.

The south west side facing the road has a blocked cambered first-floor opening and a blocked ground-floor opening, which likely served as an entrance originally. The north west side has no windows, except for a cambered arch immediately to the right of the eastern chimney stack and a lean-to extension to the east, which is shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map. The north east side is largely obscured by a 20th-century brick lean-to extension built in stretcher bond brickwork with a penticed tiled roof and a plank door featuring a wide flat weatherhood on brackets; a number of small casement windows are also present in this extension. The 20th-century extension is not considered to be of particular architectural interest.

The interior has been refurbished with 20th-century doors, wooden floors, and an inserted wooden fireplace in the lounge.

The property is shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map, unnamed and maintaining its current footprint. It originally adjoined Maresfield Mill, a corn mill that was destroyed by fire in 1878 and is not depicted on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map. It is likely the cottage had a connection to the mill, either as accommodation for the miller or millworkers, or perhaps as part of the mill itself.

The cottage is an externally little altered late 18th-century building on earlier foundations, of historical interest due to its probable association with Maresfield Corn Mill and the likely influence of the Window Tax, which explains the absence of windows on two sides.