Keepers Cottage

Keepers Cottage is a cottage that likely represents a fragment of a larger house, dating from the early to mid-17th century or possibly earlier, with a later 18th or 19th-century outshut and extensive 19th-century underbuilding. It features a timber-framed construction that has been thoroughly underbuilt in brick, with tile-hanging on the first floor adorned with bands of ornamental tiles. The roof is covered with peg tiles, and there is a ragstone rubble stack topped with a very tall handmade brick chimney.

The cottage faces approximately north and consists of a two-cell layout with a later outshut, which may have originally served as the inner room and buttery of a larger house, truncated at the left (east) end. The left room is heated by a large projecting stack and showcases high-quality carpentry, while the smaller right room is unheated and contains a staircase in the rear right (southwest) corner. The partition between the two rooms has been removed.

The exterior is two storeys high with an asymmetrical two-window front, featuring a possibly 20th-century gabled porch in the center. There are two first-floor and one ground-floor two-light casement windows, likely from the 19th or 20th century, with small panes.

Inside, the principal room retains high-status 17th-century carpentry, including an intersecting beam ceiling with chamfered beams that have run-out stops and exposed joists, some of which are chamfered on one side only. The main crossbeam extends into the outshut and has a mortise for a post. The fireplace is fitted with a chamfered oak lintel. On the first floor, some of the rear wall frame is exposed, showing large tension braces. There is also an unglazed three-light mullioned window on the first floor at the rear left, which now overlooks the outshut.

The roof is concealed behind plasterboard, although pre-19th-century rafters are visible.