Ash Copse Cottage

Ash Copse Cottage is a small house that was originally a pair of cottages, dating from the 17th century or earlier. It was extended in the early 18th and 19th centuries. The building features a timber frame that is partly tile-hung and constructed with Flemish bond red brick, with later extensions in English bond red and blue brick. The roof is made of clay plain tiles, with half-hipped and hipped ends, and there are red brick axial stacks.

The plan consists of four bays, with the central two rooms now combined into one. The left side is timber-framed for two bays, while the northeast end has been extended in brick to include two additional rooms, featuring a central axial stack and a lobby entrance. In the 19th century, a weatherboarded outshut was added to the southeast front of the southwest end.

The exterior is one storey with an attic and presents an asymmetrical four-bay southeast front. On the ground floor to the right, there are two 2-light casements with glazing bars, along with a small stair window under the eaves in between. To the left, there is a 20th-century French casement and the weatherboarded outshut. The front also includes three gabled dormers with 2-light multi-pane casements. The rear northwest side features four similar dormers, a doorway on the left, and three 19th-century 2-light multi-pane casements on the right, with similar casements at either end.

Inside, the left room has an unchamfered axial beam and unchamfered joists. The central room, which was originally two separate rooms, has a chamfered cross-beam with cyma stops and unchamfered joists, along with redundant mortices in the headbeam from a former partition. The right-hand room has large unchamfered axial joists. The attic chambers reveal exposed cambered tie-beam queen-post trusses on slightly jowled posts, along with exposed purlins and straight wind-braces. Among the common-rafter couples in the attic, two appear to be smoke-blackened, and there is a ridge-board at the southwest end.

Overall, Ash Copse Cottage is an interesting example of a multi-phase small house, showcasing both timber framing and brickwork from different periods.