Hononton Cottage

Hononton Cottage is a house dating to around the early 17th century, though it may incorporate elements of an earlier building, with alterations in the late 20th century. It is constructed with a timber frame, with the ground floor infilled with stretcher bond brickwork that retains the wall posts, and the first floor tile-hung. The roof is covered in peg tiles, and there are brick stacks.

The house faces west and has a five-bay layout. The internal arrangement is of a three-room lobby entrance plan, with the two left-hand (northern) rooms having back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack. The layout is a central hall, with a parlour or kitchen to the left (north). The left-hand fireplace might be a later addition, as the associated narrow bay appears linked only to the hall stack, and the relationship between the fireplace and the room’s ceiling carpentry is awkward. An unheated service room is to the right (south), originally divided into a buttery and pantry. The original location of the staircase is uncertain but may have risen from the front of the two service rooms. A later rear outshut has been added.

The two-storey front has an asymmetrical three-window arrangement. The roof is half-hipped at the ends. An axial stack has a rebuilt shaft to the left of the centre, and there is a 20th-century stack at the right end. All windows and the front door are late 20th-century replacements with plastic frames and diamond leaded panes. The front door is slightly left of the original entrance, facing the axial chimneybreast. There are three first-floor and two ground-floor two-light casements.

Inside, the hall has a chamfered beam on the long axis with stop-chamfered joists, along with chamfered joists. The fireplace has been rebuilt. The original doorway to the service end has been blocked but retains a chamfered lintel. Evidence suggests a former mullioned window with diagonally-set mullions on the rear wall, which was converted into a doorway to the outshut. The left-hand room features exposed joists and an open fireplace with rebuilt jambs and an original lintel. A cross beam adjacent to the fireplace retains sockets for a former partition, potentially a re-used timber, or, alternatively, the stack may be inserted in a former passage. The service end also has exposed joists and evidence of a former partition that divided it into two rooms. The wall posts feature flared jowls. The rear elevation of the first floor has two blocked mullioned windows, one of which retains original mullions.

The roof is a staggered butt purlin roof, likely replaced in the late 17th century. The house is a traditional building of the region, retaining most of its original timber frame.