Crown Cottage

Cottage, likely dating from the 17th or early 18th century with a 19th-century extension. The cottage is timber-framed with weatherboarding on brick footings; the west end wall is possibly rebuilt in Flemish bond red brick. It has brick stacks, one with a possible sandstone base, and a brick chimneyshaft, as well as a peg-tile roof. The plan is L-shaped, with the main block built across the hillslope facing southwest, overlooking the churchyard. Originally a three-room plan, with an axial stack between the centre and right (east) rooms, possibly serving only the central room. The left end room is a crosswing projecting to the rear and has a rear gable-end stack. It appears the crosswing is a 19th-century addition to the original two-room house. Without an internal inspection, detailed plan information and structural development remain undetermined.

The cottage is two storeys high with a lean-to outshot at the rear centre. The front has an irregular three-window facade. The window frames may be older, but all contain 20th-century casements with leaded glass and a lattice pattern. Hip-roofed dormers are present over the right two first-floor windows and one in the front of the left wing. The front doorway, leading into the centre room, is to the left of centre and up a few stone steps. It features a likely 19th-century plank door under a shallow timber hood supported by shaped brackets. The right-hand roof is gable-ended, while the crosswing roof is half-hipped to the front and gable-ended to the rear. The west end has a one-window front; the ground floor window has a low segmental brick arch and panelled shutters, and the first-floor window is a flat-roofed half dormer. Both are glazed in the same manner as the front windows.

The interior was not accessible for inspection, but based on other cottages in Old Groombridge, original carpentry detail and early features are anticipated to be well-preserved.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Crown Cottage was the home of successive butlers to the Saint family of Groombridge Place. It occupies an attractive and significant position within the group of listed buildings associated with Groombridge Place, which make up the village of Old Groombridge.