Nizels Farm Cottage

NIZELS FARM COTTAGE

Former farmhouse, dating from the early 17th century. The building employs framed construction throughout, though the ground floor framing has been replaced with brick, likely in two phases during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first floor is tile-hung, and the roof is covered in peg tiles with a brick axial stack.

The house is oriented to face south or south-south-west. The original plan form survives largely intact: a lobby entrance arrangement with three rooms across the width. The principal rooms are the parlour to the left (west) of the entrance and a larger hall or kitchen to the right, both heated by back-to-back fireplaces within the axial stack. A small buttery occupies the far right-hand end. Evidence suggests the original stair rose within the parlour against the rear wall. The chamber above the parlour was heated from the outset, and the attic storey was used for accommodation, served by a 17th-century stair. An integral rear outshut appears original and may date throughout from the initial build at the north-east end. The house was divided into two cottages during the early 20th century. Later alterations include a small single-storey wing added to the rear north-east corner at right angles to the main block, and relocation of the main stair to rise within the outshut against the rear wall of the principal rooms.

Externally, the cottage presents two storeys and an attic. The asymmetrical three-window front elevation includes a 20th-century timber glazed door to the lobby entrance, positioned left of centre. The windows are late 19th or early 20th-century timber casements with two and three lights and glazing bars. The axial stack features staggered shafts with vertical ribs and corbelled caps. Both gable returns have 19th or 20th-century attic windows; the left return has a late 20th-century ground floor timber casement, whilst the right return has a 20th-century door to the outshut with a flat porch hood similar in style to the front door. A hipped roof dormer addresses the rear elevation, which has 19th or 20th-century timber casements serving the outshut. The roof is half-hipped at the ends and carried down as a catslide across the outshut.

Interior features are well-preserved. Both principal ground floor rooms retain chamfered step-stopped ceiling beams—a cross beam in the parlour and a longitudinal beam in the kitchen—along with original fireplaces bearing chamfered oak lintels. The parlour fireplace has curved corners, whilst the larger kitchen fireplace shows evidence of a bread oven. The first floor contains an original plain brick fireplace to the chamber above the parlour. A complete set of original floorboards survives to the first floor. The attic floor is supported on longitudinal beams with scroll stops. An oak winder stair to the attic features plain stout balusters and a newel post with a moulded splat ball finial. Above the attic stair, the wall plate thickens into a neatly finished jowl-like projection. Where wall framing is exposed, it displays large scantling, with most jowls roughly finished and flared; one example in the front wall is square-cut and chamfered. Evidence indicates some reconstruction of wall framing on the rear wall of the parlour. Original joinery throughout includes numerous 17th-century ledged plank doors fitted with handmade strap hinges.

Most roof timbers are concealed. Over the right (east) end of the house, two queen posts or struts and a slender straining beam are visible, pegged together but difficult to date accurately without examination of additional timbers.

This is a well-preserved traditional house with substantial survival of its original plan form and interior features.