The Cottage

The Cottage is a house, likely dating to 1835, according to local family history which suggests it was under construction then. It was renovated around 1980, with a new kitchen extension added at that time. The house is built of coursed sandstone with sandstone ashlar dressings, featuring stone or brick stacks with banded stone chimneyshafts, and a peg-tile roof.

The house follows a basic T-plan, arranged to face south east. The main rooms are contained within a two-room crosswing that projects forward from the left (south west) end of the front elevation. Both rooms are heated by stacks backing onto the entrance hall, which separates the principal rooms from the former kitchen block, itself containing a projecting gable-end stack. The current kitchen is located within the 1980 extension to the rear of the original kitchen.

The property is two storeys high, with a cellar beneath the front end of the parlour crosswing.

The exterior has an irregular 1:1:1 window arrangement. Most windows are 20th-century replacements, although some original windows with margin panes remain. A canted bay window, with a curved sandstone roof and base, is situated on the first floor to the left (in the front end of the crosswing). A smaller version is positioned above the front doorway. Other windows have plain stone architraves. The original panelled front door, with full-height side lights and overlight, is set behind a 20th-century ornamental trellis porch, reached by a three-stone staircase. The front end of the crosswing is gable-ended, as are the entrance bay and a small gable over the right first-floor window; all feature plain bargeboards with apex pendants. A flat band runs at first-floor level, continuing around the left end across the garden front, forming three bays, each with a gable. The right two bays have French windows in the centre bay. The left bay contains paired 12-pane sashes under flat stone arches. A 20th-century extension to the rear is sympathetic in style, featuring Gothic-style glazing bars to the windows.

Inside, there is a significant amount of 19th-century joinery detail. The staircase, to the right of the front doorway, has an open string with shaped brackets, stick balusters, and a mahogany handrail. The roof structure comprises tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins, but the roof itself is of 19th-century construction.

The Cottage contributes to a group of listed buildings on Groombridge Hill, located opposite Groombridge Place and overlooking Old Groombridge village.