Pancake Cottage

Pancake Cottage

A former hall house dating from the late 15th or early 16th century with later extensions. The building is timber-framed with brick infill to the ground floor and tile hanging on the first floor, beneath a tiled roof with brick chimneystacks.

The original house was oriented north-south perpendicular to Loxwood Road and comprised three cells: a wide central open hall with ceiled service rooms to the south and a solar to the north. A main chimneystack was inserted between the hall and southern rooms, and a stair was inserted beneath the former solar. An early 20th-century cross wing extends to the north, and a late 20th-century extension lies to the west. Two porch-like structures project from the east elevation, one now housing a WC.

The exterior shows a main range with a hipped roof to the south end adjoining a gabled cross wing to the north. Various types of brick are visible on the ground floor, with timber framing occasionally exposed. The fenestration consists of irregular leaded casements throughout. The front door is of ledge and plank construction with iron embellishments, set within a rounded opening formed by bowed architrave timbers. It stands in a projecting porch beneath a catslide roof. The WC projection has a hipped roof. The main chimneystack stands at the southern hip, with a secondary stack at the junction between the early house and cross-wing extension.

Internally, much of the timber frame is exposed and largely complete, with the structural logic remaining fully legible despite evidence of various alterations including misaligned timbers and mortise holes. The southern service room retains medieval ceiling joists and a blocked ladder hatch. The former open hall contains a large inglenook with a bread oven on its south side, and incised graffiti reading 'WC 1724', likely inscribed by William Child, an occupant at that time. Apotropaic marks appear on the fireplace bressumer and on a beam in the opposite wall. Mortise holes in the frame posts of this wall likely relate to a former dining bench. The northern cell contains a stair compartment and small fireplace. The stair turns 90 degrees in the corner and rises the end wall on two rails, with the original structure surviving beneath modern reinforcing treads and risers.

The first floor contains two principal trusses with deep tie beams and braces, infilled to form room divisions; the northern truss is cut to form a doorway into the cross-wing extension's first-floor room. The bedroom in the former hall has a fireplace opening in its chimneybreast. Attic rafters are heavily smoke-blackened.

The house retains an excellent collection of historic doors, predominantly of ledge and plank construction, with varied ironmongery including strap hinges and unusual latches. Historic floor timbers survive beneath modern reinforcements. Windows are mostly Crittal-style steel or timber-framed. The porch and WC contain reused historic timbers.