No 13 And Attached Boundary Wall

A cottage and attached boundary wall of mixed date. The boundary wall dates to around 1640 and incorporates reused Roman and medieval fabric. The cottage itself is of early 19th-century date with a mid-19th-century rear extension.

The Boundary Wall

The wall stands approximately nine feet high and is constructed of two-inch brick on a plinth of reused Caen stone, tufa and some Roman brick. It retains the remains of a chamfered corbelled brick coping supported on dentil bricks. There is a blocked doorway with a simple semi-circular arched head. The wall was originally built as part of the detached garden wall to Sir John Mann's house at No 16 Watling Street. Sections of Roman walls were excavated nearby in the 1980s, which may indicate the source of the reused Roman material incorporated into the wall.

The Cottage

The cottage is of two storeys, constructed of red brick with grey headers to the front elevation. The left side is tile-hung to the first floor and painted brick to the ground floor. The roof is hipped to the front and gabled to the rear, with a partially projecting brick chimneystack to the side elevation.

The front elevation has a 12-pane sash window in a moulded architrave to the first floor and a 16-pane sash window with cambered head lining to the ground floor. The brickwork to the left of the door has been renewed. There is a right-side simple cambered doorcase with a late 20th-century door with four flush panels, which replaced an earlier door with glazed upper panels. An 18th or early 19th-century boundary stone is embedded in the wall immediately to the right of the door, indicating the former boundary between St Margaret's and St Mary Bredin parishes. The rear elevation has a casement window to each floor. A projecting one-storey mid-19th-century rear extension of brick is painted to the south east, with a slate roof and brick chimneystack.

The cottage is one room deep with three rooms to each floor. A half-winder staircase is positioned behind a partition to the east.

Interior

The cottage is approached through a lobby with a half-glazed door. The front room retains one wall with original dado-panelling and others with beaded plank dado panelling. A ledged plank door leads to the rear ground floor room, which retains an original wooden fireplace and original dado panelling. The half-winder staircase to the west is built into a wooden partition with a ledged and plank access door and two built-in cupboards. The upper floor retains three ledged plank doors with old hinges and built-in cupboards.

Historical Context

The cottage may have originated as a groom's cottage to 16 Watling Street and was once called Groom's Cottage. At a later stage it is thought to have been the cottage to a market garden, and a greenhouse is shown nearby on the 1878 Ordnance Survey map.