Congelow Cottages

The property comprises a group of cottages, originally a house, dating to the early 17th century, with subsequent alterations in the later 17th or 18th century and the 20th century. The ground floor is constructed of painted brick, while the first floor is rendered. The roof is covered with plain tiles. The main range is timber-framed and consists of five bays, with a rear wing of two timber-framed bays and a stack bay attached to the left. The building stands on a brick plinth. The right end of the building has a rendered, roll-moulded corbel under the eaves. The roof is half-hipped. A brick ridge stack, painted red and grey, is situated towards the junction of the main range and the wing, and a slender projecting brick stack is found towards the right end of the main range. The fenestration is irregular, with four casement windows under the eaves to the left end, one single-light, one two-light just above midrail, one two-light towards the centre, and another towards the right end. Two two-light casements are located on the ground floor towards the right end. A panelled door with two top lights and a flat hood leads up two steps towards the centre. The rendered, timber-framed, two-storey rear return wing to the left has eaves of a similar height to the main range, with a higher ridge. Its roof is hipped down to the front of the main range and gabled to the rear. The long right side of the wing exhibits exposed first-floor post and stud work, one two-light casement under a stack, and a three-light casement towards the gable end with a boarded ground-floor door below. A rendered, single-storey addition with a gabled plain-tile roof and a gable end stack extends from the rear gable of the wing. The interior shows exposed timber framing to the right side of the central bay and to the two right end bays of the main range. The right side of the central bay features two chamfered axial beams on the ground floor, a straight rear doorhead opposite the front door, and two similar doorheads leading into the front and rear right end rooms. The front and rear right end rooms each span two bays, with a central cross beam. On the first floor, these two bays apparently formed one large room with chamfered cross and axial beams. The rear wing has exposed framing of relatively heavy scantling. The main range has gunstock-jowled posts, while the rear wing has cut jowls. The main range has a clasped-purlin roof with diminishing principal rafters, deep cambered collars and curved windbraces, while the wing has a staggered butt purlin roof. The roof structure includes assorted rafters around the stack and an edge-halved scarf joint to the front wall-plate of the main range. The building was formerly known as Forge Cottage.