Brackenwood Cottage Glenwood Cottages Pump Cottage

The property comprises two dwellings, originally a single house, located in Michelmersh. The core of the building dates to the 16th century, with subsequent phases of construction and alterations occurring in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It is timber-framed with wattle and daub infill, largely replaced by brick, and has a roof covered with diamond-patterned asbestos cement slates, along with brick stacks.

Originally a three-bay structure, it now presents as five bays with a single-storey addition at the left end. The left bay is the oldest and was originally lower-roofed; the raising of this section occurred during the same period as the right bays, the central, narrower bay of which was likely initially a smoke bay. A stack was inserted into the smoke bay in the 17th century, with a smoking chamber formed on the first floor, probably in the 18th century. A rear outshut was built in the 17th century and subsequently altered; a bay was added to the left end in the early 20th century, and a large two-storey addition was constructed to the rear right in 1975.

The main elevation is now of one storey with an attic. A central 18th-century door, now part-glazed, is present, alongside a late-20th-century door under a pent canopy at the right end. The windows are 3-light casements with horizontal glazing bars, with four attic windows in flat-roofed dormers. A central T-plan ridge stack, built in two phases, stands alongside one stack near the left end. Some exposed timber framing is visible at the rear.

Internally, the right bay reveals rectangular-panelled timber framing with straight braces and jowelled wall posts. The property features chamfered spine-beams – those in the right bay have lambs tongue stops, the ground floor beam supported by a moulded bracket at its right end, and those in the left bay have a bar and lambs tongue stops. Old joists, also chamfered, are present in the left bay, as are original floorboards, with the remains of leather draught-excluding strips. The roof structure incorporates queen strut and queen post trusses with principal rafters and clasped purlins supporting pegged rafters, with smoke-blackening visible in the centre bay and somewhat in the right bay. Other features include a large fireplace in the original left bay with a timber bressumer, a former bread oven, and a flue extending to the smoking chamber. The smoking chamber is lined with smoke-blackened plaster (mostly collapsed) and features rat-trap bond brickwork. A C18th-century fireplace with curved rear corners is found in the right bay.