Randall Cottages

The Randall Cottages comprise a house and shop, now a row of houses, dating back to the 16th century or earlier, with a 19th-century facade. The building is timber framed and weatherboarded, with a thatched roof. The original main range likely consisted of three timber-framed bays, possibly with a two-bay open hall, and probably including a shop in the front of the storeyed right-hand bay. A left-hand cross-wing projects slightly forward and consists of approximately two timber-framed bays. The cross-wing is two storeys high, while the main range is one-and-a-half storeys with a semi-basement that features a red brick wall forming a high plinth. The cross-wing was formerly jettied to the front, and the right gable end of the main range has an underbuilt jetty. The cross-wing's roof is hipped to the front, with higher eaves and a slightly higher ridge compared to the main range, which is gabled to the right. Chimneys are of brick, with one projecting from the long left side of the cross-wing, another at the rear left end of the main range, and a multiple stack at the right end. The windows are irregularly placed and include one two-light casement to the cross-wing, a gabled two-light dormer with a plain tile roof at the left end of the main range, and a single-light eyebrow eaves dormer towards the centre of the main range, with a blocked window suggestive within the weatherboarding below. The ground floor has four casement windows. The front doors are boarded and are accessed via landings with wooden handrails, turned balusters, and a ragstone base, reached by four brick steps running parallel to the front wall. There are three boarded doors to the semi-basement, one to the cross-wing and two towards the centre of the main range. A narrow lean-to extends from the right gable end. A fire insurance plaque is located on the first floor of the cross-wing. The interior was only partly inspected and reveals exposed framing. The ground floor of the cross-wing features a chamfered cross beam, broad close-set joists, heavy wall framing, and a later brick fireplace. A long shaped jowl is visible to the rear principal post of the presumed right-end-of-hall truss, accompanied by broadly-spaced studding to the ground-floor partition. The right-end ground-floor room has broad close-set axial joists, a shutter groove under a former jetty bressumer, and a solid-spandrel bracket to the underbuilt jetty. Mortices indicate a former axial partition towards the front of the bay. The front right corner post is chamfered, likely to a former shop window sill, and has post-and-midrail soffit grooves for a horizontally-sliding shutter. A later brick fireplace with a wooden bressumer is located at the right gable end.