Keeper's Cottage

Keeper's Cottage

This is a cottage probably dating from the late 16th century, altered in the mid- to later 17th century, extended in the 18th century, and renovated in the later 20th century. It is built of timber frame, red brown and red brick, stone rubble and coursed stone, with a plain tile roof.

The building is a two-cell, one-and-a-half storey cottage aligned roughly east-west. It was originally designed with a smoke bay against the eastern gable wall, which was later altered to create a brick end stack, with a winder stair against its northern face. At the western end, the cottage was later extended by a single, single-storey bay beneath a hipped roof; a floor was subsequently inserted to create an upper floor room.

The timber frame survives on the upper floor above the mid rail, infilled in stone rubble, while the ground floor walls are predominantly in stone rubble. The northern elevation displays a robust timber frame with some bays featuring arch bracing and slender scantling studs. There are no visible original window openings; both main bays have later 20th-century two- and three-light timber casements. The eastern bay has a door opening with a narrow brick jamb suggesting a likely 17th-century date, and a later 20th-century ledge and plank door. The first floor frame has no window openings but a pair of inserted dormers above. The eastern gable wall has a tall stone plinth with stone above. The arch-braced frame on the first floor is infilled in rubble, flanked by panels of red brick, with narrow red-brown brick in the apex which also forms the base of the stack. Above the gable, the stack is rebuilt in red brick. The southern elevation has similarly timber-framed upper storey; windows are again later 20th-century timber casements, those on the first floor being small. There is a later 20th-century door in the central bay. The original single-storey western bay is of lighter timber framing and coursed stone rubble with a deep hipped roof beneath a small gablet, with a later 20th-century ledge and plank door on the northern elevation and casement windows on the south elevation and dormer window on the end wall.

Interior

The arch-braced timber frame survives to full height in the former western external wall, now internal, and in the partition wall between the two principal rooms. Some elements of the timber frame in the north wall have been renewed in the later 20th century. On the ground floor the eastern bay has a brick stack of narrow 1.5 inch red brown brick and standard sized red brick, with a chamfered timber bressumer with run-out stops. The timber structure of the smoke bay survives on the first floor. On the southern side of the ground floor fireplace opening is a carefully constructed and restored oven, lined in vertical brick and with a tile base. A winder stair rises against the northern face of the stack within the smoke bay, and the first floor door head is chamfered into the wall plate. The ground floor axial beam in the eastern bay is roughly square in section with 1.5 inch chamfers with lambs' tongue stops, suggesting a mid to later 17th-century date for the ceiling. A pair of pintle hinges, now horizontal, in the mid-rail of the northern wall suggests reuse.

The timber frame in the former western external wall, now internal, is weathered on its external face. The ground floor has diamond mortises indicating mullions of a former window, and the sole plate and rail above, the latter probably reused, are deeply grooved. The western face of the internal partition between the bays has the cut stub of a former, horizontally-laid axial beam.

The roof is wind-braced with side purlins, although the purlins are only visible in the gable wall. The roofspace is enclosed above the collars, where wattle and daub partitions remain in place, although many of the rafters are machine-cut and of relatively recent date. The uneven ceiling below suggests that the original lath and plaster ceiling may remain in place.

Internal doors were constructed in the late 20th century, and their door furniture was acquired from the Weald and Downland Museum. Tile floors, using split roof tiles, were also renewed in the later 20th century.