Little Thatch Cottage

BRADFORD ABBAS

1611/0/10008 Little Thatch Cottage 25-MAY-04

GV II House. Circa late C18; altered C19 and extended late C20. Rendered stone rubble. Thatched roof with gabled and half-hipped ends. Gable-end stack with short brick shaft. PLAN: 1-room tapered plan, narrower at the left [south] end and with fireplace at the right [north] end; probably originally open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire; first floor and partitions inserted in the C19 to create a pair of cottages, but now re-united into one house. C20 single-storey extensions at rear and at left [south] end. EXTERIOR: 1 storey and attic. Asymmetrical 3-bay east front; ground floor C20 3-light casement on left, 12-pane sash on right and central doorway with early C20 panelled and glazed door in later porch with thatched roof; two small attic casements, 1-light on left and 2-light on right; raking buttress on right of front. C20 flat roof extensions at left [south] end and at rear [west]. INTERIOR: Ground floor has large stone rubble fireplace at north end with big chamfered cambered timber bressumer and pole beams supporting first floor. Attic chambers ceiled, but purlins exposed. Simple pole-rafter roof structure completely smoke-blackened, including the underside of the thatch, the battens and thatching ties. This would seem to be a very rare, late example of a small house originally built open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. Alternatively, the smoke-blackening of the roof structure might indicate that some kind of process was once carried out in the building, sooting the roof timbers and that it was later converted into a dwelling.