East Haxted Farm Cottage

East Haxted Farm Cottage is a farm cottage with attached agricultural building. The north east bay of the cottage and south west agricultural building date from the mid 18th century, the south west bay was added around 1800 and links the two earlier parts. The cottage was refurbished in the 1930s. The attached late 19th century barn with 20th century corrugated roof is not of special interest.

The ground floor of the cottage is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with some vitrified headers. The first floor is tile-hung over a timber frame of thin scantling. The tiled roof is gabled to the north west, hipped to the south west and south east with a catslide roof to the south west. There is an original end chimneystack to the north east and a 20th century external chimneystack to the south west.

The north east bay was constructed first as a two storey single bay end chimneystack cottage with outshot, comprising one heated room and outshot on the ground floor and a single heated room above. It was extended to the south west by a further two storey bay, comprising an unheated ground floor room and two unheated first floor rooms, which altered the plan of the cottage to an L-shape. This extension also linked the cottage to a single storey two bay farm building. All three elements are separately framed.

The north west or entrance front has a brick dentil cornice between the ground and first floor of the southern bay only. There are two early 20th century wooden casements, a further ground floor casement window to the return of the southern bay and a 1930s plank door with glazed panel and iron hinges to the northern bay. The north east side has an end brick chimneystack projecting only on one side where the first floor is tile-hung. On the other side timber framing of thin scantling is exposed at first floor level. The south east side has a catslide roof to the northern bay, which has an early 20th century wooden casement window and plank door. The attached single storey agricultural building has a dentil cornice and wide doorcase with wooden architrave and plank door.

Internally, the ground floor north western room has an 18th century open fireplace with wooden bressumer with one inch chamfer and run-out stops and wooden shelf supported on wooden brackets. The brick left side has been worn down by knife sharpening and has a brick seat. The brick right side retains the blocked arch of a breadoven, removed in the 1930s when a larder was constructed in the outshot. The ceiling joists were originally covered by lath and plaster which had been removed. A ledged plank door in the partition wall leads both to the outshot and a steep straight flight staircase. The first floor timber frame with diagonal braces is visible in the outshot. Adjoining is a small bathroom. The southern ground floor bay of the cottage is accessed through the northern bay and has a sloping ceiling with exposed floor joists and a 1930s brick and tile-on-edge fireplace. The first floor north west bedroom has a tiebeam with one inch chamfer with run out stop and retains the shadow of the wide chimneybreast in the plaster. A later airbrick indicates the presence of a blocked original fireplace. Part of the ceiling is boarded but the roof structure was visible with original thin coupled rafters with ridgepiece. A ledged plank door leads to the southern bay which has a separate roof from the northern bay and appears to be separately framed. It contains two rooms. The roof is of similar construction to the southern bay with thin coupled rafters and much of the wall frame is visible in the south west room but boarded over in the south east room. Each room is approached through a ledged plank door. The attached south agricultural building is of two bays with staggered purlin roof with angled queen struts to the central truss. It is separately framed from the cottage.

East Haxted Farm Cottage was built as a farmworker's cottage to East Haxted Farm in the 18th century, in two phases. It is first shown on the 1897 Ordnance Survey sheet. The footprint is unchanged from the present day except that a line is drawn between the north western bay of the building and the L-wing, suggesting it was divided into two cottages at that time although no second staircase survives. On the 1912 Ordnance Survey sheet both parts of the cottage are united but there is a line drawn between the cottage and the south western agricultural building. The cottage was refurbished in the 1930s.