Orchard Cottages

Orchard Cottages comprise three cottages dating to circa 1890-1900, with a small addition from circa 1970, designed by an unknown architect. The cottages are constructed of roughcast brick, with brick walls and roughcast chimney shafts, and have a peg-tile roof. Originally built as a row of four cottages down a hillslope, facing south-southwest, they are numbered 1-3 from left (downhill) to right. Number 1 occupies two of the original cottages. Each cottage was initially one room wide and two rooms deep, with the left-hand, southern cottage having an axial stack to the right that backs onto the next cottage. A similar stack is situated in a similar position in the second cottage. An axial stack between the central two cottages serves back-to-back fireplaces. The central cottages originally had front doorways, while the end cottages have doorways in their end walls; Number 1 now features a two-storey porch extension on the left end, set back from the front.

The cottages are in a Vernacular Revival style, reminiscent of Voysey. The facade has an irregular three-window arrangement with timber casement windows and glazing bars. A raking buttress projects from the centre. To the right of the centre, there's the front doorway to Number 2 and a window to its right. To the left, there are three windows, the centre one blocking an original front doorway. A continuous hoodmould runs over the windows and doorway, interrupted by the buttress. This hoodmould is formed by the roughcast lipping outwards onto tiles. Similar hoodmoulds extend over the first-floor windows, which are gabled half-dormers with plain bargeboards—there is one to Number 2 and two to Number 1, one to each of the original cottages. The doorway to Number 2 contains its original top-glazed plank door. The roof is irregular, with a higher section to the right. It is half-hipped to the right, hips down to the lower ridge in the centre, and hipped to the left. The right end wall is flanked by raking buttresses and has a two-window front in the same style as the front, with a doorway toward the rear containing a door similar to that in Number 3. At the left end of the front wall, it returns round the end with a broad curving corner; the doorway on this end has been replaced by a circa 1970 porch. The interior of the cottages has not been inspected. Overall, these are an attractive row of Vernacular Revival cottages.