Updown Cottage Well Cottage

Well Cottage and Updown Cottage is a house that has been divided into two homes. It dates from the early to mid-16th century, with alterations made in the mid-17th century and a facade added in the 18th century or early 19th century. The building is timber-framed, with the left end of the front elevation featuring painted brick and a first-floor stud or post towards the center. The rest of the facade is made of red and grey brick in Flemish bond on the ground floor, with tile-hanging above, both of which are painted to the left of the stack. The right gable end is chequered red and grey brick, which extends for a short distance along the right end of the front elevation. The roof is covered with plain tiles.

The house has an open hall that consists of one, or possibly two, timber-framed bays, with a storeyed end bay to the left. It has two storeys and features a painted plinth to the left of the door, as well as an underbuilt jetty at the front of the left end bay. The roof is hipped, and there is a red and grey brick ridge stack to the right of the center. The windows are arranged irregularly, with three casements: one three-light towards the left end, one two-light to the left of center, and one two-light to the right of the stack. The door to Well Cottage is boarded, with a segmental head and a flat bracketed hood to the left of the stack. There is a brick lean-to at the rear of the right gable end, which has a boarded door leading to Updown Cottage, and a weatherboarded lean-to with a boarded door at the left gable end.

At the back, there is a short two-storey rear wing to the right, set back from the gable end, with a tile-hung first floor, a lower ridge, and a plain tile roof that is hipped to the rear. The interior has only been partly inspected, but it features an axial beam and broad close-set joists in the left end room, with evidence of a jetty at the front. There is a plain left end-of-hall beam that is morticed for a partition. A 17th-century inserted floor in the left hall bay includes a chamfered axial beam and bevelled joists, with no evidence of a jetty. The interior also has a brick fireplace with a wooden bressumer and a winder staircase located behind the stack. The roof is a later clasped-purlin type made of small-scantling timber.