Westwood Farm Cottage

Westwood Farm Cottage, Kingston

Originally a farmworker's cottage, now a house, this building dates from the late 18th century with a 19th-century agricultural outshot and an early 20th-century addition to the south. A late 20th-century brick outshot addition to the north-west is not of special interest.

The structure comprises a part brick ground floor, rendered, with a chestnut timber frame clad in weatherboarding and a hipped tiled roof. External brick chimneysstacks are positioned to the north and further south on the early 20th-century addition.

The plan consists of a two-bay end chimneystack cottage with a central staircase and two rooms on each floor, with an agricultural outshot to the north-west. An early 20th-century (Edwardian) addition of one bay to the south comprises a ground floor parlour and bedroom above.

The south-east elevation of the original section has two casement windows on each floor. The ground and first floor windows of the north-west bay feature late 18th or early 19th-century leaded light casement windows with pintle hinges. Other windows are 19th-century wooden casements within the original openings. A central doorcase has a plain wooden hood and brackets with a 20th-century door. Set back to the south-west, the Edwardian extension is one tall storey with attic, weatherboarded with a tiled roof and tall brick chimneystack forward of the ridge. It has a tall eight-pane sash window to the ground floor and a large gabled dormer above. The north-west elevation features tarred weatherboarding and an external brick chimneystack. The south-east elevation has a seven-light later 20th-century window spanning the full width of the building. The north-east elevation has a weatherboarded low lean-to outshot with tiled roof and a taller rear entrance with a plank door, plus a fixed casement of eight panes to the Edwardian extension.

Internally, main access was originally through the door in the south-west elevation but now enters through a porch on the north-west side with a ledged plank door. The two original ground floor rooms are divided by a central straight flight staircase; the northern partition wall retains upright posts but not the infill panels. Both rooms have exposed chestnut ceiling beams of thin timber scantling. The north room's fireplace has been blocked in. The other room has a brick chimneybreast with wooden bressumer and a ledged plank door. The outshot contains an original partition wall of chestnut with brick infill. The south ground floor room of the Edwardian extension has plank panelling and a round-headed projecting chimneybreast. The first floor landing has two plank doors. The north bedroom has a cambered wooden fireplace. The Edwardian south bedroom has plank panelling to the south wall with exposed purlins and collar beams.

The building appears to have been a circa 1780 farmworker's cottage, probably associated with Westwood Farm. It appears on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map with an outshot to the north-east already present. By the 1907 Ordnance Survey map, the building had been extended by one bay to the south-east.