The Cottage

This is a timber-framed house, likely built in the mid-17th century, with later 19th and 20th-century modifications. It stands on footings of coursed sandstone. The timber frame is exposed on the front and left end walls, while the rest of the building is clad with peg tiles. The ground floor front is constructed with a Flemish bond brick façade featuring decorative burnt headers. A brick stack, possibly with a stone base, rises from a brick chimneyshaft incorporating old brick. The roof is covered with peg tiles.

The house appears to have originally been a two-room plan, with a lobby entrance facing northwest towards the Church of St Mary. While a full interior inspection was not possible, it’s believed the central lobby gives access to a stack serving the left, or northern, room, which would have been the main living room. An unheated service room would have been situated to the right. A projecting gable-end stack at the right end is probably a 19th-century addition. For a 17th-century two-room plan house, The Cottage is unusually large and tall.

The building is two storeys high with attic space in the roof, and has later additions to the rear.

The front façade is nearly symmetrical, featuring late 19th or 20th-century casement windows, mostly iron-framed with small panes of glass. The central doorway is sheltered by a likely late 19th-century gable porch with cusped bargeboards, concealing a 20th-century studded plank door. The roof is tall, steeply pitched, and gable-ended. The left (north) roof overhang projects and is supported by shaped oak brackets. The exposed timber framing on the left end includes slender curving braces, and an attic window is a 4-light mullioned window dating from the 17th or 18th century.

Although the interior could not be inspected, given the well-preserved external framing, it is suspected that good original carpentry features are present. Evidence suggests the north end has a roof constructed with side purlins, while the front displays three uneven bays.

The Cottage is part of a notable group of listed buildings near the Church of St Mary.