Old Chegs

Old Chegs is a house, originally a farmhouse and later divided into two cottages in the 19th century, dating to the mid to late 17th century. It was reunited and refurbished around 1960. The ground floor is of Flemish bond brick, with decorative burnt headers; the upper parts are timber-framed and clad with peg tiles. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts rise from the roof, which is covered in peg tiles.

The house has an L-shaped plan. The main block faces south and originally comprised three rooms. The central and right-hand (east) rooms have been combined, and a projecting gable-end stack is visible. The left-hand room, now the entrance hall, has a separate axial stack, dating to the 19th century. Evidence of a former axial stack between the central and right rooms remains at first-floor level. A two-room block projecting to the rear of the left end has been rebuilt and enlarged in the 20th century to create the current kitchen. The house is two storeys high with attic space in the roof.

The front elevation has a regular, though not quite symmetrical, three-window arrangement of 19th-century casement windows with lattice glazing bars. Both original cottage front doorways have been blocked, and access is now through a 20th-century door behind a gabled porch on the left (west) end. The roof is half-hipped at both ends. A dormer window in the centre of the rear roof provides light to the attic stair. The rear block has 20th-century casement windows with a diamond leaded pane effect.

The interior ground floor largely features 19th- and 20th-century details. The headbeam of the 17th-century partition separating the central and right-hand rooms remains, and shows evidence of doorways at each end. The chamfered, scroll-stopped axial beam on the right also shows evidence of an earlier partition below. The first floor retains much of the original 17th-century structure, which is substantially exposed. The outer walls have straight bracing, and the rear wall reveals evidence of small, diamond-mullion windows. The right-hand room fireplace has a plain oak lintel. The original attic stair rises against the chimneyshaft and consists of steps made of quarter-log baulks; this is a rare survival. The attics are plastered, concealing the roof structure, which is of a side purlin construction.