The Old Cottage

The Old Cottage

This is a house probably dating from the 17th century, with later 17th-century and subsequent phases of alteration and extension.

The building is constructed of red brick with a slate roof and clay tile covering to the central outshut. Windows and doors are predominantly timber, though there are several uPVC replacements to the rear.

The house faces south-east and follows a lobby-entrance plan beneath a hipped roof. The principal rooms are arranged either side of a large central stack, with the main entrance aligned to the stack. Beyond the stack, a winder stair is housed in an outshut. A cellar lies beneath the right-hand room, accessed through a hatch in the entrance lobby.

The main range comprises three-and-a-half bays. The left-hand half bay extends back behind the building to form a rear wing of one-and-a-half storeys with a pitched roof and a large brick stack against its end wall. To the rear, the principal hipped roof drops to a catslide covering two adjacent outshuts of different dates. The central outshut is the earlier of the two; the eastern outshut is later and was built as a stable, accessed from the rear of the house.

On the front elevation, an asymmetric arrangement includes a 20th-century pitch-roofed brick entrance porch at the centre and a large rebuilt ridge stack slightly off-centre to the right. The roof hip to the left extends below the eaves over the half bay. The bays either side of the door are lit at ground and first floors by two-over-two sliding sash windows, with two further small casement windows on the ground floor. The brickwork indicates phased construction, with the first floor appearing later and the ground floor showing evidence of openings altered in shape and size. A brick beside the front door is carved with the date 1667 and the initials 'AA'.

The south-west flank elevation is contiguous with the rear wing and displays patched brickwork consistent with a 17th-century date. A brick buttress is present to the right, and a plat band runs over the heads of doors and windows. Two doorways and four irregularly spaced and sized windows (now uPVC) light this elevation, with two dormer windows added in the 20th century above. A rebuilt, truncated stack emerges at the far end of the roof against the steeply-pitched gable parapet of the north-west end wall. This end wall contains a small blocked opening in the gable and a brick dated 1667 (or possibly 1661). The lower part of the wall is screened by a brick lean-to with tiled roof.

The north-east flank elevation features three-light casement windows with glazing bars on ground and first floors. The arched head of a small blocked cellar window is visible at ground level. Scarring in the brickwork on the left suggests the roof form has been lifted and altered, and a small blocked window is also visible in this area.

The rear outshuts beneath the catslide differ in construction. The central outshut is rendered with a tiled roof, while the later stable to the east is taller and deeper in plan, built of yellow brick with a central stable door and slate roof.

The ground floor rooms contain exposed structural timber, which may be primary but shows evidence of alteration or reconfiguration. The lobby entrance opens only into the left-hand room; the right-hand room is reached via a passage behind the stack. A winder stair opens into the passage, its footprint within the central rear outshut.

The ceiling frame in the left-hand principal room has two chamfered spine beams carrying chamfered joists. It is possible the ceiling frame has been lifted and the room proportions altered to the north and west. The bressumer over the inglenook fireplace is carved with a simple geometric motif, repeated at smaller scale on the fireplace bressumer in the right-hand room on the first floor.

The right-hand ground floor room also has two exposed spine beams, though the joists are ceiled-over. These beams have ovolo mouldings and both have been extended in length with a spliced joint and iron strap approximately two-thirds along their length. The beam length before extension corresponds with the cellar dimensions beneath, suggesting this room was extended at some point.

The rear wing appears structurally separate, situated at lower ground level and reached through an opening in a thick internal wall which may align with the original back wall of the house. Its ceiling frame is exposed, comprising a large chamfered cross beam with lamb's tongue stops and chamfered and stopped joists.

Historic joinery, fixtures and fittings throughout the house range in date from the 17th to the 20th century, including early doors, fireplace cupboards and a brick-built copper in the rear range.

The cellar is brick-lined with arched alcoves in the walls. The ceiling has a single chamfered and stopped spine beam.