Old Post Cottage

An C18 detached cottage, extended in the late C20. These C20 additions are all of lesser interest.   MATERIALS: rendered cob walls on a flint base with timber casement windows, under a thatched roof.   PLAN: the cottage faces south and consists of two main elements. The eastern side is formed of the original cottage which has a central front door, an open plan to the ground floor and an opening to the north-west (into the extension). There are two bedrooms on the first floor with a passageway to the rear which also connects with the extension to the west.   The late-C20 extension has an entrance porch to the western side. On the ground floor there is a kitchen, cloakroom and sitting room along with a straight stair to the rear. On the first floor there are two bedrooms and a bathroom.   EXTERIOR: the two elements are unified by a thatched roof. The original cottage is a two-storey, symmetrical, three-bay building constructed in rendered cob under a thatched roof with gable stacks. It has a central doorway with a brick porch, which is probably of C20 date. It has a round-headed arch and a C20 door, under a thatched roof. There is a C20, double-glazed casement window to either side on both floors. The eastern and rear elevations are blind except for a C20 outshut to the rear which has a casement window. The late-C20 extension to the west projects slightly forward of the earlier cottage and has a higher ridge. The south-facing elevation has a half-hipped gable which faces south and casement windows to each storey including an eye-brow dormer. On the western elevation there is a thatched porch with C20 door and irregular casement windows, including an eye-brow dormer. On the rear elevation the thatch extends down to just above ground level and includes a further eye-brow dormer window. The ground-floor fenestration to the rear of the extension is irregular.   INTERIOR: the floor frame of the original cottage has C20, slender, white-painted floor joists, which are supported by a light-weight spine beam. The fireplace to the western end has a rebuilt, brick surround in the form of an inglenook with later bressumer. This is supported by back to front beams secured with tusk tenon joints. There are no internal doors on the ground floor and those to the first floor, along with the partition wall, are C20. The end bedroom to the west has a single, timber roof support which breaks through the sloping ceiling. The attic has an A-frame roof constructed with roughly-squared timbers, some of which have been replaced by C20 machine-cut equivalents.   The extension interior has typical, C20 fixtures and fittings.

SUBSIDIARY BUILDINGS: to the south-west of the cottage there is a circular well which is around 1m in diameter. It stands around 0.5m high, has a rendered finish and is capped by a circular, timber-boarded cover.