5-8 Club Cottages

A row of four cottages, built in the mid-19th century but incorporating parts of a probable early 17th-century house. The cottages are constructed of Flemish bond brick, with the first floor tile-hung and decorated with bands of ornamental tiles, and have a peg-tile roof and brick stacks.

The cottages are arranged along an east-facing range, with numbers 6 and 8 having a double-fronted appearance. The main rooms are heated by end stacks and shared axial stacks. Cottages 5 and 6 appear to have a core dating back to the early 17th century. While the original plan has been altered by new partitions, number 6 seems to retain part of a framed house’s parlour or hall, with an originally unheated service end to the north. A portion of this hall or parlour is also visible in number 5, alongside what appears to be the left (south) end frame of the earlier house.

The exterior is two storeys high, with hipped roofs at the ends. The window arrangement is asymmetrical, with a 1:2:1:2 window front; numbers 5 and 7 have porches on the right side. The porches are similar, featuring hipped peg-tile roofs supported by rustic posts. The porch to number 8 has been enclosed, but the 19th-century posts remain. All cottages retain their original 19th-century plank and cover strip front doors and windows. These include two-light casements to the first floor and three-light casements to the ground floor, each with two panes per light, except for number 8, where three windows have been replaced in the 20th century.

During inspection, numbers 5 and 6 revealed some likely 17th-century joists in the ground floor rooms and open fireplaces (half in each cottage) with chamfered stone jambs and a scroll-stopped lintel. Some original wall framing remains on the first floor, along with wall posts with jowls supporting a clasped purlin roof with wind braces. Number 5 includes a queen strut arrangement.

The cottages are part of a group with numbers 1-4, a separate row located immediately to the south.