Memorial Cottages With Attached Outbuildings And Garden Walls

A pair of cottages with attached outbuildings and garden walls, built in 1902 by Philip Webb for Jane Morris as a memorial to William Morris. The cottages are constructed from uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and have a stone slate roof with coped verges to the front gable. They are designed in a Vernacular Revival style and have a T-plan layout.

The cottages are two storeys and have an attic. The ground floor features four segmental-headed 2-light leaded mullion windows, with a smaller segmental-headed leaded window to the right. A group of three openings is centrally located on the first floor, with a plaque depicting William Morris in the middle, linked by a continuous hoodmould. The plaque, designed by George Jack based on a drawing by Philip Webb, portrays Morris seated with a hat, satchel, and stick, facing a cockerel, with trees and farm buildings in the background. Narrow rectangular leaded windows are situated to either side. Two narrow round-headed windows are near the top of the gable. Internal end and ridge stacks are present, along with similar stacks to the projecting rear range and in the rear left and right corners, all with diagonal shafts and moulded capping. The gables, except the front, are roughcast to the apex with wooden dripmoulds; the rear gable features twin narrow recessed leaded windows directly above and two narrow top-hung leaded casements on the first floor, along with paired round-headed openings with recessed 3-light leaded mullion windows to the ground floor. Entrances are in the gable ends, recessed behind moulded segmental-headed arches with dripstones, and feature plank doors with strap hinges. Round-headed alcoves are on either side. Projecting outbuildings, set in angles to the rear, are enclosed by rubblestone walls with rounded coping. A roughly coursed rubblestone garden wall with rounded coping to the front has semi-circular bases for former pumps, adjoining a section attached to and dividing the cottages.

Inside No.2 (the left cottage), the front room contains a built-in larder to the left corner, and folding window shutters with strap hinges. A dog-leg winder staircase incorporates stick balusters, square and rectangular newels, and a sweeping ramped dado similar to that found in Nos.1 and 4, Manor Cottages. Inset plank wall cupboards and corner fireplaces are present throughout. A ladder staircase leads to the attic. The farm buildings depicted in the William Morris plaque are thought to be some of those at nearby Kelmscott Manor.

The cottages are designated Grade II* as a complete and largely unaltered example of farmworkers’ cottages built in memory of William Morris, who lived at Kelmscott Manor until his death in 1896.