Rose Cottage

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST BIRD-IN-HAND STREET, OLD GROOMBRIDGE 16/449 No 1, Rose Cottage, and No 2 20.10.52

GV II*

Former house, now divided into 2 cottages. Late C17 with some C19 additions, probably associated with the subdivision of the house. Weatherboarded timber frame on coursed sandstone and brick footings. Brick stack (maybe with stone base) and chimneyshaft. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: Pair of cottages facing east north east, say east, and built down the hillslope. No 1 on the left (downhill) side has a one-room plan with a fireplace from the axial stack it shares with next door. Early if not original single-storey bakehouse block to rear with gable-end stack. One-room plan extension on the left (south) end was built in the C19 as a shop (a cobblers according to the present occupant). No 2 to right has a 2-room plan. Its larger left room has a fireplace from the axial stack shared with No 1.

Main block was probably built as a 3-room lobby entrance plan house with the main room, the hall, in the centre parlour to left and service room to right.

House is 2 storeys with attic rooms in the roofspace, a cellar under the centre, single-storey bakehouse and lean-to outshots across the rear.

Exterior: Irregular 3-window front of old casement windows containing both rectangular (No 1) and diamond (No 2) panes of leaded glass. Blocked cellar window in the centre. Both cottage doorways up flights of 3 stone steps and both contain similar plain plank doors under late C18/early C19 flat hoods; moulded edges on scrolled brackets carved as acanthus leaves. Main roof is gable-ended to right and half-hipped to left. Small C19 shop to left had front door alongside a continuous row of windows. Roof is gable-ended. Rear outshots and bakehouse walls of coursed sandstone.

Interior: Only No 1 was available for inspection at the time of this survey. In the main house the fireplaces have modern chimneypieces. Both ground and first floor rooms have chamfered axial beams with scroll stops. Roof of tie- beam trusses with clasped side purlins. The winder stair rising to rear of the stack is probably the original, at least in part.

This pair of cottages was built as a house of some (maybe merchant-class) status. It is very well-preserved but what is more remarkable is that it is but one of many in this estate village.

Listing NGR: TQ5298637695