Keepers Cottage

HILDENBOROUGH NIZELS LANE (west side) TQ 55 SW 1/172 Keepers Cottage - GV II

Cottage, probably a fragment of a larger house. Circa early/mid C17 or earlier, with a probably C18 or C19 outshut and extensive C19 underbuilding. Framed construction, thoroughly underbuilt in brick; tile-hung to the first - floor with bands of ornamental tiles; peg-tile roof; ragstone rubble stack with a very tall handmade brick shaft.

Plan: The house faces approximately north. 2-cell cottage with a later outshut, possibly originally the inner room and buttery of a larger house, truncated at the left (east) end. The left hand room is heated from a massive projecting stack and has high quality carpentry. The smaller right hand room is unheated with a stair rising in the rear right (south west), corner. The partition between the 2 rooms has been removed.

Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front with a probably C20 gabled porch in the centre. 2 first floor and one ground floor 2-light C19 or C20 casement windows with small panes.

Interior: The principal room preserves high status C17 carpentry: an intersecting beam ceiling, the beams chamfered and stopped with exposed joists, some chamfered on one side only. The main crossbeam projects into the outshut with a mortise for a post. The fireplace has a chamfered oak lintel. On the first floor some of the rear wall frame is exposed with large tension braces. An unglazed 3-light rear left mullioned window on the first floor now overlooks the outshut.

Roof: Concealed behindplasterboard although pre-C19 rafters are visible.

Listing NGR: TQ5451650052