Pear Tree Cottage

Pear Tree Cottage is a small house dating from 1770. It is constructed of red brick with a tiled roof. The front (north side) of the house presents a near-symmetrical facade with two windows over two storeys. The roof is plain, with a catslide at the rear. The brick walls feature a thin eaves fillet and cambered arches above the ground-floor windows. Casement windows are present, and the east gable has an early 20th-century oriel window with a hipped tile roof. A plain doorframe supports a moulded canopy on carved brackets, and it contains a six-panelled door. Several bricks above the doorway are incised with initials: WT, WL, HH, JW and WP. A lead Sun fire insurance sign, number 279234, is also present, having been issued on January 2nd, 1770, for “The new house and shop.” A wrought-iron bracket and gas lamp frame are fixed to the upper wall on the east side. Historical photographs reveal the presence of a blacksmith's forge, formerly a single-storeyed building to the east of the house, and a pear tree which grew against the front wall.