Woodpecker Cottage

Woodpecker Cottage, High Street, Ecchinswell & Sydmonton

A timber-framed cottage with tile roof, dating from the 17th century with 19th-century alterations and 20th and 21st-century extensions.

The historic cottage is rectangular in plan, oriented north-south, with a west entrance elevation and east garden elevation. The ground floor comprises a north entrance hall, central living room and south dining room, with modern additional rooms to the east. The first floor contains three west-facing bedrooms, a north bathroom and a corridor running along the east side of the house. A master bedroom added in 2009 projects to the southeast. An attached modern garage block to the northeast is of no special interest.

The west elevation displays timber-frame of at least two phases: more substantial timbers at ground floor level (particularly the posts, upbraces and girding beam) are 17th-century work, while the thin scantling of the first floor is 19th-century. Both floors are infilled with painted brick nogging. An off-centre porch with tiled lean-to canopy supported on reused timbers is present, along with a central dormer and half-hipped tile roof of late 20th-century date, with an off-centre chimney stack. All windows are modern metal casements. The south elevation has no visible timber-frame at ground floor level. The east elevation has been extended, though the frame of the former rear external wall survives at ground floor level as an internal wall. The upper storey to the east elevation is entirely 20th-century stretcher bond brick.

The hall and living room share a chimney stack with a much modified fireplace; the bressumer is not original. The living room contains an axial beam with carpenter's marks identifying correct joist positions. The living and dining rooms open into each other through what was formerly their external timber-framed east wall. A blocked timber-mullion window is visible in the office's west wall. All rooms to the east are modern additions. Stairs formerly rose from the hall but now rise from the dining room. The hall ceiling has pine beams suggesting a late date. The first floor is largely devoid of historic features except for plank doors with iron latches of late 19th or early 20th-century date. A visible dividing wall between the two former cottages indicates the former north cottage had a single ground-floor room with a fireplace in its south wall and opposing west and east doors. The east wall of the former south cottage shows a consistent run of framing over two bays with a blocked rear door at centre. Its west wall suggests the south bay is an addition, with less substantial scantling and no exposed timbers to the south elevation at ground floor level. The internal division between the living and dining areas consists of re-used ex-situ timbers. The roof features 19th and later a-frame trusses with one rustic pole supporting the ridge pole, though inspection was restricted.

Woodpecker Cottage was formerly known as Kewell Cottage. It originated in the late 17th century as a single-storey cottage or cottages, one room wide. In the 19th century the roof was raised to accommodate a full first floor. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1873 shows the building as two cottages. The north cottage was L-shaped with a presumed out-house extension at its northeast corner, and the access path shown on the map indicates the front door remains in its original position. The south cottage was also L-shaped with a presumed small out-house extension at its southeast corner. By 1895, the northwest corner of the north cottage had been infilled to form a rectangular but still two-part property. A well is marked to the east of the south cottage. By 1911 the rear extension of the south cottage was remodelled as a narrow north-south extension. The cottages were unified sometime after this date.

The house underwent further modifications in the 20th century. In 1974 a garden room was added to the northeast. Around 1980 the thatched roof was replaced with the present tiled roof. In 2009 a kitchen was added to the southeast with a master bedroom above, and an office was created on the ground floor in the space between this new extension and the sun room. All late 20th and early 21st-century alterations and extensions are not of special interest.