Willow Cottage

Willow Cottage is a farmhouse, originally three dwellings now divided into two. It likely dates from the 16th or early 17th century, with most of the windows replaced in the 20th century. The building is rendered with a double Roman tile roof. The original plan may have been a through-passage layout, with a heated room to the right and a heated room to the left, featuring a fireplace backing onto the passage. A second stack, now cropped below the ridge, is located at the left gable and might represent the original fireplace position, with the central one inserted later. The position of this stack remains unestablished. A wing at right angles, at the left end, incorporates earlier fabric and was extended by one bay in the 20th century.

The front of the building features two half-gables facing No. 371, and a smaller half-gable facing No. 373. It has one and a half storeys and three windows. No. 371 has 20th-century two-light casement windows. The window to the ground floor right is likely where an earlier door was located. No. 373 has a 20th-century casement window to the gable above a small square light, and a two-light steel window, all of 20th-century date. To the left, set back from No. 371, is a wing at right angles with a small single-floor extension, formerly a shop, with 20th-century two-light casements. The entrance to No. 371 is in a 20th-century gabled porch on the return wing. The entrance to No. 373 is in a 20th-century glazed porch facing the road. A ridge stack is located to the left of the cross passage, and a large external stack is at the rear of the right gable, possibly indicating a service wing from the original build.

The rear elevation includes various 20th-century two-light windows and a lean-to conservatory. The interior of No. 371 was inspected and features a central ground-floor room with a series of floor beams, closely set as rafters, a rebuilt pennant stone bressummer fireplace, a relatively high ceiling, and deep chamfered beams on either side of the room at the partitions. The middle room has two three-plank doors, one of which leads to a winding staircase with face mouldings on the risers mirroring those on the door planks. The upper floor retains remains of two pairs of raised crucks, including a heavy member near the staircase. A wave mould to the stops is present on the door frame between the staircase and the fireplace. There is a short length of splat balustrade on the landing. The arrangement appears to be a one or two-room house on one side of the cross passage, with the remainder of the plan in No. 373, displaying some overlap at the first floor. The roof is primarily later rafters, and no smoke blackening was found. Despite considerable modifications, the original form remains visible in the building’s frontage, and significant internal structure and fittings offer historical interest.