Tyrone Cottage And Beech Cottage

Tyrone Cottage and Beech Cottage

House, now comprising two houses. Probably 17th century, altered and added to in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Timber frame, rubblestone and brick construction with plain tile roofs.

The building is a 3-bay timber-framed house that has been substantially restored and extended. A 18th-century addition at the left end is partly constructed in galleted brick and rubblestone, with a central rear addition dating to the mid-to-late 20th century. The two-storey elevation steps up to the right, where Beech Cottage is positioned. The elevation now presents as two 2-bay cottages, with Beech Cottage stepped forward.

Beech Cottage has a front wall and 1st-floor right return of red brick in Flemish bond with some grey headers. The rear and ground floor of the right return are galleted rubblestone, and the gable of the left return is tile-hung. A timber wall plate runs along front and rear walls, with a wall post in the recessed rear-right corner and a mid-rail tie-beam, collar and studs to the right return. Tyrone Cottage is of galleted rubblestone, but with brick in irregular bond to the 1st floor of the right-hand bay and a tile-hung gable to the rear-right projection. The 20th-century addition is of brick and tile-hung construction.

Ground-floor openings have segmental header-brick arches, while 1st-floor openings are square-headed. Windows feature brick jambs and leaded casements; two old casements with saddle bars survive at Beech Cottage.

The front elevation of Tyrone Cottage has a central 4-panel door (with top panels glazed) set within an added gabled log porch, flanked by 3-light windows on each floor and a small fire-window to the far right on the ground floor. There are tabled end stacks. Beech Cottage is narrower and was formerly similar without the fire-window, but its central doorway was later blocked and a new doorway inserted to the left with a board door and porch. A tabled stack sits at the right end.

The rear of Tyrone Cottage has a gabled projecting bay on the right with a 3-light window to each floor. Beech Cottage has a blocked door on the left with a 3-light window to its right on each floor. A 20th-century 2-storey extension crosses the centre with a gable on the left matching that above the right-hand bay. The right return (Beech Cottage) has a bread-oven projection; its ground floor is masked by a lean-to structure.

Interior timber-framed cross-walls define the original three cells and have rubble plinths, large rectangular timber panels and wattle and daub infill. These partitions are positioned between the door and right-hand window of Tyrone Cottage, at the junction between the two houses, and between the door and blocked opening of Beech Cottage. The partitions are full-height and in Beech Cottage formerly continued to the roof. Both houses contain 18th-century style metal-strapping at timber joints, old board doors with ironwork, and large-scantling cross-beams with lamb's tongue stops. Beech Cottage retains some old wide floorboards to the 1st floor and Tyrone Cottage has early square-section joists in the right-hand room.

Beech Cottage features a fine chamfered 4-centred arched brick fireplace with bread-oven, to whose left are a cupboard and a doorway to a winder stair. A similarly arched smaller fireplace above has a 19th-century grate. Tyrone Cottage has its original fireplace in the right-hand room with a timber bressumer. In the left-hand room (probably a later addition) is a large inglenook with a triangular-cut soffit to the bressumer and an old mantle ledge.

The roof of Beech Cottage has three collared trusses clasping plank-like through purlins, square-section rafters pegged at the apex, and one pair of flat wind braces.