Tips Cross Cottage

This is a house, originally two cottages, likely dating from the 17th century, with alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of Flemish bond brick, with blue headers to the ground floor, and tile-hanging above. The rear of the east crosswing is weatherboarded to the ground floor and framed above, with a peg-tile roof and brick stacks.

The house faces south-east. It has an L-shaped plan, with the main range originally two rooms wide, though the partition has been removed. The larger left-hand room has a projecting stack in the west end, and a smaller, unheated room to the right. The crosswing has an axial stack and appears to have been built in two phases, with a lower roofline to the rear (north) section, and a 20th-century outshut along the east wall. 19th and 20th-century alterations obscure the original arrangement. The main range appears largely rebuilt in the 19th century, and a framed partition at the junction with the crosswing suggests the two blocks may have functioned as separate cottages. While the crosswing retains some 17th-century features, such as a jettied gable and open fireplace, much of the carpentry has been replaced.

The house presents an attractive exterior facing onto Philpots Lane. It has an asymmetrical two-bay front, with the crosswing to the right featuring a jettied, tile-hung gable on curved brackets. The roof is gabled at the left end of the main range and half-hipped at the end of the wing. The main range has a 20th-century front door and gabled porch, leading into the unheated room on the right. The windows are largely 20th-century casements, with diamond-leaded panes, in one-, two-, and three-light arrangements. The gable of the crosswing has a pretty arched one-light 19th-century window. On the rear elevation, the roof slopes down as a catslide to the outshut.

Inside, the front (south) room of the crosswing has plain carpentry and an open fireplace of handmade brick with an oak lintel. A timber plaque with the date 1621 is tacked to the lintel, though its authenticity is uncertain. The main range has plain exposed carpentry. The roof has not been inspected, but old timbers are said to survive.