The Wool House And Garden Wall To North And East

The Wool House and Garden Wall to North and East, Loose

This group comprises two timber-framed houses probably associated with the wool trade, built at different periods and restored together in the 1920s. The buildings stand on Well Street, Loose, and are of considerable architectural interest for their structural detail and fenestration.

Wool House Cottage dates from the mid-16th century with a later rear wing added to its west side. The main range consists of three timber-framed bays with a narrow central stack bay, while the rear return wing is formed by two and a half bays. The main range rises to two storeys and an attic; the wing is two storeys. Both are built on a stone plinth. The right (Well Street) elevation displays close-studding of thin scantling with gunstock jowls and tension braces to the broad gable end. The roof of the main range is half-hipped to the road with a gablet, while the wing is gabled to the south with a lower ridge and a gable-end stack. Fenestration is irregular, comprising three small casements: one 2-light to the gable end of the main range, one 2-light to the left bay of the wing, and one 3-light to the right. A half-glazed door serves the left bay of the wing. The north (former front) elevation features a continuous jetty, partially obscured at its west end by The Wool House addition. A central brick ridge stack has a blocked doorway beneath it, and the first floor is pargetted.

The interior retains exposed framing with rebated gunstock-jowled posts to the rear wing. Mortices survive for a 4-light diamond mullion first-floor south window, now obscured by the later rear wing, and a 2-light diamond mullion window lights the north side of the stack bay. Chamfered stone fireplaces occupy the ground floor and a smaller example the first floor, with another stone fireplace at the gable end of the wing. The roof structure is a clasped purlin design with diminishing principal rafters and windbraces. Attic floor joists are rebated for boards. A notable feature is 16th-century wall-painting depicting teazles on the east ground-floor chimney breast.

The Wool House was added to the front of the right (west) end bay of the Cottage in the early 17th century, running north from it and facing east away from the road. Until approximately 1940, and possibly originally, the two buildings intercommunicated internally. The Wool House adopts a lobby entry plan with four timber-framed bays, including a narrow stack bay, rising to two storeys and an attic. It has a stone plinth, higher on the Well Street side due to the slope of the ground. The structure displays close-studding with a dropped tie-beam.

The rear (Well Street) elevation has plain bargeboards to the left gable end and a brick ridge stack in the narrow second bay from the left (north) end. Fenestration is irregular, consisting of three leaded ovolo-moulded mullioned casements morticed for diamond subsidiary mullions: one 6-light to the left (north) end bay, one 4-light to the third (south-central) bay, and one 5-light to the south end bay. A blocked 3-light window beneath the stack is accompanied by a 2-light ovolo-moulded mullion window below it. Five small leaded casements serve the ground floor.

The front (garden) elevation displays irregular fenestration of four ovolo-moulded mullioned windows with diamond subsidiary mullions. The three principal bays each have a 10-light mullioned and transomed window; the south end bay includes 2-light frieze windows while the south-central and north end bays have 3-light frieze windows. A 2-light ovolo-moulded mullion window sits beneath the stack, with a door to the ground floor below.

The interior features exposed framing of heavy scantling with edge-halved scarf joints. Chamfered axial beams and bevelled joists serve each end room on each floor; the south-central room on each floor has an ovolo-moulded axial beam. Four chamfered stone fireplaces serve the stack, each with a wooden bressumer. The south-central room displays carved chamfer-stops to these fireplaces on both floors, while the north room has plain stops. Twentieth-century stairs occupy the west side of the stack, likely in the original 17th-century position. The roof is a clasped purlin design with windbraces, interrupted tie-beams, and vertical queen-struts to the collars.

The garden wall is constructed of roughly coursed ragstone and runs north for approximately three metres from the north-west corner of The Wool House, then turns east for about forty metres. It diminishes in height from about three and a half metres to about two metres on account of the slope. The wall is included for its group value.

The property is owned by the National Trust.