The Old Cottage In The Grounds Of Frogshole Cottage

The Old Cottage in the grounds of Frogshole Cottage is an early 19th-century squatter's cottage that was later used for storage. It features flimsy timber framing with midrail and brick infill in stretcher or Sussex bond, which is now painted. The cottage has a tiled roof with an off-central brick chimneystack that has been rebuilt above the ridge, and an external chimneystack to the south, which may contain a bread oven. The building is a single storey with three windows and consists of three heated rooms (a living room and two bedrooms), along with a scullery and storeroom in a rear outshut.

The front or east elevation has three 19th-century casement windows. There is a wooden architrave around the doorcase, but the door itself is an Inter-War four-panelled door, and an Inter-War square porch has been added. Two later triangular brick buttresses have been added on the right side for strengthening. To the south, a later 19th-century lean-to brick privy has been added, featuring a plank door with ventilation holes, and there is an external chimneystack. The north end has a timber-framed gable. The rear or west elevation has a brick outshut covering the southern two-thirds, with a timber-framed wall on the remaining part. The outshut has 19th-century fixed casements at the ends and a gabled rear entrance with a plank door.

Inside, the roof construction is simple, consisting of pegged rafters without purlins, with some additional later rafters added for stability, and it has never been ceiled. There are back-to-back hearths, and Inter-War panelled doors lead to the outshot and living room. The floor is reported to be an original earth floor.

This cottage holds social historical interest as a rare unimproved example of an early 19th-century squatter's cottage built by impoverished agricultural labourers on the roadside verge. It is the last unimproved example of a vernacular type that was once common in this area. The 1845 Tithe Map shows a small enclosure on the site of the cottage, but not the cottage itself, while the 1873 Ordnance Survey map shows the cottage in its current configuration.