1 And 2 Westbury And Water Pump

Pair of estate cottages at 1 and 2 Westbury, Bradford Abbas, dating from the 1820s or 1830s with later additions from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The cottages are built in coursed local lias stone with ashlar dressings, beneath a hipped slate roof. The end stacks are of stone with pairs of brick shafts set diagonally. Windows throughout consist of inwardly opening metal casements with leaded glass, set within stone mullioned, flat-headed surrounds with hood-moulds and square labels over.

The buildings form a mirrored pair of two-storey semi-detached cottages, each with a two up and two down plan and a small side range. Single-storey additions are positioned to the rear and accessed through the original rear entrances. Number 2 has a 20th-century kitchen extension of no particular interest.

The east-facing facade presents a symmetrical, four-bay composition in Tudor style. Each cottage has a central entrance with a deep stone lintel featuring a four-centred arch, fitted with a vertical boarded door with strap hinges. Two-light casements flank each doorway. A continuous stone string course runs across the facade, above which sit three matching windows to the first floor. The rear (west) elevation is partly obscured by lean-tos, though the original rear doorways remain as internal doors to the later 19th-century additions. Each cottage has a two-light casement to both ground and first floors. The north and south elevations feature single-storey ranges with hipped roofs; the range to Number 1 (south side) has a three-light casement window inserted in the 20th century.

Internally, the plan form of both cottages remains substantially intact. Repairs have been made to joinery, and Number 2's sitting room fireplace has a mid-20th-century tiled surround, but most original simple fixtures and fittings survive, including timber battened doors with their original hardware, other joinery, and stone flooring to the sitting room of Number 2. Each cottage contains an enclosed winder stair leading to a small landing and two bedrooms. The roof comprises king post trusses with V struts and a single row of staggered purlins, pegged together. Though not inspected in detail, these structural elements remain original.

A cast iron water pump stands in the front garden of Number 2.

The cottages were built for the Marquis of Anglesey, who held the Bradford Abbas estate, sometime between 1825 and 1838. They first appear on a parish map dated 1838. An identical pair of estate cottages, Numbers 3-4 Westbury, was built as a companion group. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1888 shows both pairs situated within a large plot of approximately 1.4 hectares, later marked as allotment gardens on the 1903 edition map, though this land has since been subdivided into individual gardens. Each cottage originally had a pigsty to the rear; only that belonging to Number 4 survives, though it has lost its roof. The cottages remained part of the Bradford Abbas Estate until 1954.