Former cottage to rear of No 100 (Job's Farm)

This is an 18th-century, three-bay cottage originally situated to the rear of No. 100, Job's Farm. The cottage has undergone minor alterations in the 20th century. It is constructed with a timber frame and later brick infill. The west end features an external brick stack. The brickwork on the central bay, both front and rear, is in Flemish bond, while the remaining brickwork is in stretcher bond.

The front elevation (south) features a 19th-century plank door and a two-light, four-pane wood casement window in the west bay. Other bays have casement windows. The rear elevation has a rebuilt brick bay on the right side.

Inside, the bays are divided by tie-beams with straight braces to the principal rafters. There is exposed studding in the plastered walls of the middle bay and above the tie-beam in the east end bay. Also present are plastered wattle partition walls and remnants of a lath ceiling at purlin height. The roof structure, dating back to the 18th century, utilizes poles as purlins and early, light scantling rafters, largely surviving. A fireplace with a timber bressumer on brick piers and a bread oven is located in the west end bay. The floor is newly laid cement.

The cottage is depicted on enclosure award maps from 1855 and a Tithe map from 1844, indicating its origins in the 18th century. It was built within an enclosure on the southern edge of Hawley Common, alongside similar buildings, parcelled off from the common land. While associated with Job’s Farm, maps from 1888 show that the farm itself was located approximately 170 meters to the southwest. It’s believed the cottage may have served as either a farm worker’s dwelling or the home of an independent farmer reliant on the Common. In the late 20th century, it was used as a small museum, later for storage, after lean-tos at the west and east ends (shown on the 1888 map) were removed.

The cottage is designated at Grade II for its architectural and historic interest. It retains a significant amount of original fabric and plan form and offers a rare, little-altered survival that illustrates the life of commoners and local and national agricultural demography.