Poplar Farm Cottage

Poplar Farm Cottage is a cottage, likely dating from the early 18th century. The windows are largely 19th century replacements within original openings, and a rear extension was added in the 1970s. A 20th-century WC and a flat-roofed extension on the east side, constructed in the 1970s, are not considered to be of special architectural interest.

The cottage is timber-framed, with the west side featuring brick facing in stretcher bond and tile hanging above. The east side is weather-boarded. The tiled roof has a chimneystack at one end, with a sandstone base and brick above.

The cottage is a two-storey, two-bay house with an end chimneystack and an off-centre entrance. The original plan included two rooms of unequal size on each floor, with a staircase situated opposite the entrance. The layout has remained largely unchanged, although a small 20th-century WC and a 1970s replacement of an earlier penticed outshot have been added to the east side.

The west or entrance front has two 19th-century, horizontally sliding casement windows within the original window openings on the first floor. The ground floor features one similar window and a larger casement on the right-hand side. The off-centre door is a four-panelled door set behind a gabled wooden porch supported by piers.

The east side has no first-floor windows and only one small casement window on the ground floor. The south end of this side shows the return of the sandstone chimneybreast, largely obscured by a 1970s brick extension. The north side of the property is hidden by a later building, Poplar Farm.

Inside, the entrance from the west leads directly into the south sitting room, which features a chamfered spine beam with run-out stops and un-chamfered ceiling joists, originally plastered over. The large open fireplace has a wooden bressumer on brick sides, including a bread oven to the left, a seat to the right, and two spice recesses. The walls have 18th-century dado panelling. A plank door in the north wall gives access to the staircase. The dining room to the north also has exposed ceiling beams.

The kitchen and bathroom’s west wall was originally the east external wall and shows an exposed timber box frame with some visible carpenters' marks, extending into the upper floor. Evidence in the bathroom’s north wall indicates the former presence of a penticed outshot, with original truss timbers still visible.

The original half-winder staircase retains its framed partition walls and old floorboards to the landing. The larger south bedroom has exposed wall-plates, jowled corner posts, and wide oak floorboards. The north bedroom has exposed wall-plates and iron pintle hinges on the door frame.

The cottage retains a virtually complete series of ledged plank doors.