Benson Cottage

Benson Cottage is a house dating from the second half of the 17th century, with some alterations. It is constructed of rubblestone and features a 20th-century tile roof and rebuilt brick stacks. The house has a central lobby entrance leading to an unheated room at the rear. It is two storeys high with an attic and consists of three bays. There is a 20th-century single-storey kitchen wing added to the rear right, which is not of special interest.

The entrance, located to the left of centre, has a 20th-century part-glazed door set in a wide opening, topped with a deep canopy supported by scrolled brackets, and a two-light window above. The flanking bays feature three-light windows. All windows have timber lintels and 20th-century casements. The doorway and the left-hand ground-floor window are accented with quoin-like stones, and there is a horizontal timber to the right on the ground floor. The house has end stacks, and the rear has various 20th-century windows along with a skylight in the roof. The right return includes a small attic window.

Inside, the right-hand room features an inglenook fireplace with a chamfered timber bressummer and chamfered quoins. There is a wooden seat on the right and a bread oven on the left, which has stone voussoirs, brick lining, and a flue below. The interior also includes chamfered spine beams, with the beam in the first-floor right-hand room having stepped cyma stops. The window reveals are splayed, and the outer first-floor windows at the front have wooden mullions. The doors are plank and four-panel types. A central straight-flight stair, with winders at the bottom, has a 19th-century balustrade. While the original tie-beams remain, other roof timbers are from the 20th century. In the attic, the right-hand stack rises in a semi-circular shape made of stone, with brick at the top.