Reading Room Cottage and the Old Reading Room is a Grade II listed building in the Dorset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 November 1966. Cottage, reading room. 1 related planning application.

Reading Room Cottage and the Old Reading Room

WRENN ID
lesser-chancel-quill
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Dorset
Constituency
West Dorset MP: Edward Morello (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
11 November 1966
Type
Cottage, reading room
Address
Reading Room Cottage and the Old Reading Room, Powerstock, DT6 3TD
OS grid reference
SY 516 962
Coordinates
50.76373, -2.68662
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Reading Room Cottage and the Old Reading Room are an attached cottage and former reading room dating from the mid-18th century. The building features rubble stone walls and a thatched roof that is hipped on the left side, with stone gable coping on the right. There are two brick stacks, one at the left-hand hip apex from the 20th century and another at the ridge center. The structure has one and a half storeys on the left and one storey on the right, with four windows consisting of three-light wooden casements that have horizontal glazing bars and wooden cills. The former reading room includes two tall three-light windows with a high wooden transom that has been rebuilt, as well as a small square window on the gable end. The front doors to the Reading Room Cottage are made of planks with a wooden lintel above, while the Old Reading Room has a plank door with one glass light. Inside, there is a 19th-century cooking range in situ and a slightly chamfered ceiling beam.

Local climate

Reading Room Cottage and the Old Reading Room receives an average of 810 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 52% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 71% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 26 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 71% of listed buildings. Of these, 10 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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