Ockley Manor Farm Cottages

Ockley Manor Farm Cottages

A pair of early to mid-19th century farm workers' cottages, now converted into a single house. The building stands in the north-east corner of its plot, positioned behind (to the east of) a courtyard of converted farm buildings that originally served Ockley Manor Farm. It faces south towards Ockley Manor, with the rear elevation looking north over open fields.

The cottages are constructed of red brick and flint, with the front and rear elevations at first floor level hung with clay tiles. The roof is tiled with a hipped form and deep, sprocketed eaves fitted with boarded soffits. Window frames are a mixture of timber and steel, and doors are timber throughout. The building is two bays wide with a rectangular footprint and two end chimney stacks.

The exterior is striking for its use of wide bands of flint interspersed with narrow stripes of red brick, with red brick quoined dressings around openings and at the corners. The chimneys have irregular brickwork that roughly reflects the position of the internal flues serving the ground floor hearth, scullery copper, and first floor front room. Both chimneys have been rebuilt, each now with a single flue. A part-brick, part-timber-framed lean-to remains against the flank wall of the east cottage. The side elevations are blind.

The front elevation was originally symmetrical, with a pair of doors at the centre flanked by a window either side at ground and first floor levels. The door to the west cottage has been replaced with a window and the lower part of the opening infilled with brick; the door to the east cottage is a late-20th century timber replacement. The ground floor windows are late-20th century timber casements, while the first floor windows are of more horizontal orientation, tucked under the eaves, and are early to mid-20th century steel-framed casements. The rear elevation is similar, with doors arranged centrally to each cottage and a window at ground floor either side. The ground floor windows are late-20th century casements, while the first floor windows are multi-paned horizontally-sliding Yorkshire sashes, probably of 19th century date. The door to the east cottage is also of probable 19th century date.

Originally two cottages with mirrored plans, the buildings have been linked by inserting a single doorway between the hearth rooms. The plan of the right-hand (east) cottage remains essentially unaltered. It is entered into a large hearth room to the front, with a scullery to the rear giving access to a stair enclosure against the party wall. Beneath the stair is a walk-in cupboard, accessed from the hearth room. At the top of the stair, a small landing gives access to a larger front room and a smaller, unheated, backroom.

In the west cottage, the original stair has been removed and replaced with one running in the opposite direction, accessed through the original door to the under-stair cupboard. The scullery has been divided to create a hallway giving access to a small bathroom on one side and a WC beneath the new stair on the other. On the first floor, the stair now lands to the back of the plan, so the landing and back room have been reconfigured to accommodate this; the front room remains largely unaltered except for repositioning of the door from the landing.

The interior of the east cottage survives particularly well. While it cannot be said with certainty that all internal joinery is original, the majority is consistent with an early to mid-19th century date. Most doors are of plank and ledge construction with forged strap hinges and wooden or hairpin latches. Simple architraves surround the doors in the hearth room, with unmoulded skirting boards. A wooden towel rail on the door between the scullery and stair enclosure may be a 19th century fitting. A copper with its wooden lid survives in the corner of the scullery. The stair has three solid brick winder steps at the bottom, then continues in a straight, steep timber flight along the party wall. On the first floor, the partition between the stair and the small back bedroom is formed of studwork, boarded on the bedroom side with studs left exposed in the stairwell.

The joinery in the west cottage is less consistent due to alterations to the plan, although a number of plank and ledge doors similar to those in the east cottage remain. The simple straight flight of stairs, the balustrade on the first floor landing, and the planked partitioning of the small back room are all later fabric associated with the 20th century alteration. The door now in the front room on the first floor probably pre-dates the house; it has two raised and fielded panels and HL hinges.

Both houses have large hearth openings in the ground floor hearth room designed to take a range. Both openings have segmentally-arched lintels and a long mantle shelf on simple curved brackets. To one side of each hearth is a built-in cupboard. A similar arrangement exists on the first floor, but with the fireplace being a much smaller opening with a cast iron grate and surround. The upper rooms in both cottages are unusual in having high vaulted ceilings, with the lath and plaster finish taken up to the underside of the collar of the roof trusses. The reason for this treatment is unclear and may or may not be original.