The Old Cottage

The Old Cottage is a 17th-century house located on the west side of Sutton Street, Bearsted. It is timber-framed with brick infilling and has a plain tile roof. The building stands on a brick plinth. The timber frame is characterised by widely spaced studs with staggered ground-floor cross-rails. The roof is half-hipped, featuring a gablet at the left end and a hipped section with a gablet at the right end. It includes a central ridge stack and a smaller projecting stack at the right gable end. Two small eaves dormers are visible. The house has two timber-framed bays. The window arrangement is irregular, with a central leaded 3-light casement window on the first floor, a 20th-century bay window with a plain tile roof at the left end of the ground floor, and a leaded casement window at the right end of the ground floor. A heavy panelled door is positioned towards the right end of the building, sheltered by a 20th-century wooden porch with a plain tile roof. The left gable end features a casement window with a plain-tiled pent ice roof at the left end of the ground floor and a blocked door at the right end. Inside, the staircase is likely in its original position, against the front wall, in the centre of the house, with a passage separating it from the stack.