The Old Thatched Cottage

The Old Thatched Cottage

This is a house probably dating to the 16th century, modified in the later 16th or 17th century, with a 20th-century extension to the north.

The building is timber-framed with later cladding or replacement materials. The front elevation of the three historic bays is faced in flint rubble with brick dressings. The later northern bay is in brick. The ground floor of the south gable wall is flint rubble with brick dressings; the upper floor is brick with exposed raking struts. The rear wall is principally brick with areas of flint. The whole is now painted and covered by a thatched roof. Evidence of weathering on the timber frame suggests that some elements of the early building may have been exposed to the weather or were reused from a previous structure.

The house originally had a lobby entry plan in three bays, facing east, with a hipped roof to the north and south. This arrangement was inserted into an existing building, probably with an open hall. A four-flue chimney stack was built in the second bay, with its principal opening serving the third bay. A newel stair is located to the rear of the stack, entered from the third bay, and a second winder stair sits at the south-west corner of the second bay. A cellar lies beneath the southernmost bay. According to historic photographs, the fourth northern bay was originally a single-storey lean-to structure, with an upper storey and hipped roof added in the 1970s.

The entrance is beneath a 20th-century thatched porch. The door is panelled below a glazed upper section of two-over-three lights. Windows are 21st-century two-light casements in earlier openings which have brick quoins and flat brick arches. There are eyebrow dormers of two lights, the left-hand window being shallower in height. The right-hand bay has a cambered arched ground-floor window and full dormer window. A short brick axial stack rises at the eaves line. The south gable wall has a first-floor two-light casement within a shaped surround, with exposed raking struts to each side; the bargeboards are similarly moulded. The rear elevation is a mix of brick and flint with full dormers having tile cheeks and roofs. Above the rear entrance in the second bay from the south is a small projecting bay with a canted window, tile-hung cheeks and apron, now supported on shafts from below; historic photographs show the bay was previously unsupported. The door below is six-panelled with the upper panels now glazed. In the south-west angle is a probably 19th or early 20th-century brick stack. The rear wall of the northernmost bay has been removed, opening onto a 20th-century conservatory. The north wall has 20th-century windows, possibly in earlier openings on the ground floor.

Interior

On the ground floor, the inner transverse wall of the southern bay has a timber cill, a chamfered rail on the southern face, a substantial central post, and is mostly of full-height panels. The studs and posts have irregularly placed mortises suggesting previous fixings or reuse. Joists in this and the next room are later replacements.

The brick stack is mainly of narrow red, brown and grey bricks approximately 1½ inches (4 centimetres) deep, with rebuilt piers. It contains an oven to the west and behind it a newel stair. An axial beam embedded in the stack has a two-inch chamfer with run-out stops. The upper floor appears to have been inserted when the stack was built. The central post in the north wall is a substantial half section of tree retaining its bark on the northern face, particularly at first-floor level. The frame is of small panels with straight braces; joints are numbered on the northern face, where it shows little sign of weathering, suggesting it was internal or at least covered. The lower section of the north-west post shows signs of burning.

The passage opposite the front door is lined in panelled wainscotting with a floor of red and black tiles.

Wall plates and upper parts of the timber frame above the inserted floors are visible on the upper floor. The southern two bays have substantial tie beams; those on the eastern side of the house have steep arched braces. On the western side the braces have been removed to allow access to the upper-floor rooms. On the south wall the tie beam has peg holes, probably for former braces, and the inner face is very worn. There is reused timber in the northern truss of the original building.

The house has a side purlin roof with coupled rafters pegged at the apex, some with a short collar below the apex. The wall plate of the former north wall, now internal, has seatings for rafters of a hipped roof. There is extensive evidence of blackened and scorched timbers suggestive of a previous fire rather than purely accumulated soot commonly associated with an open hall. Above the second truss is a section of a wattle and daub panel. In the northern bays, purlins have been replaced with rounded timbers, thought to be reused spars, installed in the 1970s.

The cellar is of brick and flint with brick steps. The floor, originally brick laid on earth, now has 21st-century tiles.

Later additions, notably the single-storey conservatory, do not contribute to the special interest of the building.