4-34, Faringdon Road

These sixteen cottages, numbered 4-34 Faringdon Road, were built between 1846 and 1847 for the Great Western Railway Company as part of a village designed to house railway workers. The village was conceived by I.K. Brunel, though he only designed the initial block, which was intended to be more decorative due to its visibility from the railway line. Construction of the village was delayed by financial difficulties and proceeded in phases between 1842 and 1855.

The cottages are constructed from coursed squared rubble, with ashlar surrounds for the window and door openings. The rear walls are of coursed rubble, and the roofs are slate-covered with brick stacks built on the party walls between the cottages. Each cottage is a two-story, one-bay dwelling, with a passage running through the side. A 20th-century brick lean-to has been added to the rear of the terrace. The cottages have a low, chamfered plinth. Most have 20th-century fifteen-pane glazed doors set within chamfered surrounds with splayed stops. They originally had four-pane sashes in chamfered surrounds. Number 34 retains its original twelve-pane sashes with margin lights, along with a beaded plank door. It now functions as the 'Railway Village Museum' and is preserved as a typical railway worker's house dating to around 1900. The interior layout of the cottages was altered around 1890 with the replacement of the original rear washhouse and WC with a scullery and a new WC.