Telegraph Cottage

Telegraph Cottage is a building dating from around 1800, originally constructed as a telegraph house for signaling messages to warn of potential invasions from France. It was built for the Admiralty as part of a network of signaling stations designed by Lord George Murray, inspired by a more complex system created by the Frenchman Claude Chappe. The original section of the cottage is rendered, while the rest is made of painted rubble, topped with a bitumen-grouted rag slate roof. It features rendered brick stacks, including a central axial stack and another on the right side of the front.

The cottage has a small rectangular single-depth plan consisting of two rooms, along with an original lean-to on the left and a 20th-century conservatory in front. It is a single-storey building with a two-window front and the conservatory positioned to the left of the doorway. The windows are from the 20th century.

Although the interior was not inspected, historically, there was a 20-foot high signaling panel above the ridge, which included six pivoting shutters that could be adjusted from inside the house using a system of ropes, cranks, and counterweights. This allowed messages to be relayed across the country quickly, with 63 possible shutter combinations enabling pre-arranged messages to be sent over hundreds of miles in just minutes. Remnants of this signaling structure can still be found in the roof space. Telegraph Cottage is the only surviving building of its type, making it historically and technically significant on a national level.