St Swithun'S Cottage

This is a late medieval timber-framed house, originally an open hall, dating from the early 16th century. It was altered in the 18th century with the addition of a chimney and a further bay to the north, and re-windowed. A rear extension was added in the later 20th century. The exterior is now rendered with a hipped thatched roof, and features an 18th-century brick chimneystack on the rear slope. The house is one storey high with attics, and has four windows to the front.

Originally, the house comprised three bays: a central open hall, a parlour bay to the north and a service bay to the south. The west front has three eyebrow dormers, and late 20th-century uPVC casement windows are set within earlier openings. A timber and herringbone brick porch with a penticed tiled roof is located on the north side. The south front has a 20th-century casement window. The west or garden front is now largely obscured by a later flat-roofed extension containing 20th-century doors and windows.

The original parlour bay to the north retains 18th-century chamfered axial floor joists with run-out stops. The original open hall bay to the south has an inserted 18th-century chamfered spine beam with run-out stops, chamfered floor joists and a corner fireplace with a wooden bressumer. Visible wall framing remains. Upstairs, the south bedroom has a corner 18th-century fireplace with a built-in brick and cast iron grate. The original partition wall survives, along with the top of the wallplate and curved tension braces. An 18th-century plank door with pintle hinges is also present. The central bedroom reveals the top of the wallplate, upright posts, and curved tension braces. The 18th-century extension to the north has a 3-plank door with pintle hinges, and rafters are visible. The roof includes heavily sooted rafters, windbraces, and laths in the central open hall bay, with undiminished principals and clasped purlins. Later pole rafters, possibly 18th century, are found in the end bays of the medieval house.

The Bellinger family owned the property from the 16th to the 17th century, and a William Bellinger was recorded in a court homage as early as 1555. By the early 19th century, Edward Fitt held the property and occupied the manor of Littleton. Photographs from 1909 show that the ground floor on the south side was a post office, and the building was occupied by Isaac Penton, an agricultural labourer, Rose Penton, the Post Mistress, and their sixteen children.