Old School Cottages

A row of three estate cottages, originally a late 17th-century farmhouse (with a date of 1696 inscribed inside), likely divided in the 19th century and with some 20th-century alterations. The structure is timber-framed with a ground floor built of red brick - the front of No. 1 features noticeably more burnt headers. The framing above is hung with peg tiles; the southwest end stack is of coursed sandstone, with the others of red brick, and chimneyshafts are brick. A peg-tile roof tops the building.

The layout is L-shaped, with the main block set back from the road and featuring a three-room plan, each forming a separate cottage. No. 1 has a projecting gable-end stack (added in the 19th century) and an end entry, while the centre room (No. 2) has a rear lateral stack, with part of the room partitioned off as an entrance hall and staircase. A 19th-century rear block serves as a kitchen, and No. 3 has a large projecting gable-end stack and a lower rear service block.

The original farmhouse had a three-room plan: the left-end room was an unheated service room (possibly a passage), the centre was the kitchen, and the right-end room was the parlour. The rear service block may be original.

The exterior presents a regular four-window front with 19th and 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. All doorways have 20th-century plank doors, and the roof is gable-ended. The east end stack is substantial, built of coursed sandstone with tiled weathering offsets.

Internally, most rooms on both ground and first floors have chamfered and scroll-stopped axial beams, though these are boxed in at No. 3. The centre room (No. 2) has a large brick fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel, including a bread oven and cupboard alcove. A blocked fireplace with an exposed oak lintel is present in the chamber above. The end fireplace (No. 3) is also blocked and features a chamfered oak lintel with a low Tudor arch. Sections of the original studwork are visible in the centre room (between Nos. 2 and 3), inscribed with the date "1696" and the initials "I and MG and D and FG" along with scrolled decoration. The main block’s roof structure consists of tie-beam trusses with A-frames and butt purlins.