Furxefield Cottage

Furzefield Cottage is a timber-framed building dating from the early to mid 16th century, originally comprising two and a half bays. It was likely built with either an open hearth or a smoke bay or smoke hood, and incorporates an integral outshot to the rear left. A 17th-century brick chimneystack was inserted into the original structure. The cottage was refronted in the late 18th or early 19th century, with a further outshot being added to the rear right and left side, and subsequently re-windowed in the 20th century, along with the addition of a small rear porch. The exterior is now primarily painted brick, though a jowled post is visible on the right side elevation, along with some exposed beams above the lean-to on the left. The outshot is partly stock brick and partly red brick, incorporating a tiled course protecting a timber beam. The roof is steeply pitched and hipped, with a red brick chimney stack. The cottage is one and a half storeys high, featuring two windows. It now has 20th-century casement windows with leaded lights, the ground floor right window retaining a blocked cambered arch. There are two gabled dormers, and a cambered doorcase with a 20th-century plank door set centrally.

The interior retains a high-quality timber frame featuring a mid rail, curved braces, jowled upright posts and a queenpost roof. The ground floor contains a brick open fireplace with a cambered wooden lintel with run-out stops. A central axial beam has a deep chamfer to the unheated parlour side and mortise holes indicating a former partition. The floor joists are of square section, and original 16th-century floorboards remain in the first floor central room. Evidence of wattle and daub partitions also remains. Smoke blackening is reported within the roof space above the chimney. Discoloured wattle and daub on the rear of the chimney suggests the possible presence of an earlier smoke bay or hood. The cottage retains 18th-century plank doors.