1 Mill Cottages and boundary wall

Mill Cottages and boundary wall

A dwelling of pre-1850 date with an earlier core of probable early 18th-century date, with later alterations.

The building is constructed of brick with some oak framing and structure. The road front and south end have flint and brick banded courses. The roof is covered in thatched reed. The windows are 21st-century timber casements. There are timber plank doors to the interior. The stone flags to the ground floor are modern.

The plan comprises a two-unit arrangement with a shallow full-width lean-to at the rear.

The cottage is of single-storey plus attic construction, with a deeper rear roof slope. The flint and brick-banded roadside elevation displays a wide two bays with the door under a projecting tiled porch to the right. Modern casements are fitted to each floor. The half timbering around the first-floor openings is set irregularly. The end elevation has regular brick and flint banding under a brick gable with central 20th-century brick end stack. Additional brickwork to the right gable denotes the raised eaves level. Single-light openings are present to the left side of the elevation and the rear roof slope drops to a few metres above ground level.

The rear elevation has a shallow brick lean-to with part-replaced timber framing and a seven-course tiled roof set underneath the main thatched roof. Some sections of the brickwork have been rebuilt. An eyebrow dormer sits to the left of the roof slope, and a brick stack runs on the left end of the ridge.

Interior

The front door leads to a small vestibule next to an inglenook fireplace that faces the principal ground-floor room. The fireplace has been re-lined in brick and there is a bressumer with chamfer and stops to each end. Behind the inglenook, a timber post with iron straps is in the back wall. Set in the inglenook at ceiling height is a chamfered oak beam with run-out stops to each end and attached joists. The south wall of the principal room is timber-framed with pegged small panels. To the right (south) is a door to a modern winder stair with a chamfered post to the doorway. To the left corner of the room is a door to the kitchen.

The kitchen has a chamfered ceiling beam running from the front of the building to the rear. Mortises in the beam indicate that it has been reused from elsewhere. The beam is supported by a chamfered post towards the south, and the south end has a scarfed addition. In the south-west corner of the room is a cupboard built under the stairs. The ground-floor rooms have 21st-century stone flags laid on top of under-floor heating.

The stairs to the first floor are behind the timber-framed wall that forms part of a pegged closed truss. A redundant brace mortise in the frame indicates that the building frame formerly extended by a further bay to the south, which has since been replaced by the current kitchen bay. At the top of the stair are doors to the bathroom (right) and two bedrooms. The bathroom has an exposed reused oak purlin. The bedroom to the north has a stop-chamfered ceiling beam and exposed framing in the south wall below a dormer window. An additional ceiling beam next to the north wall has mortises to its soffit with cut tenons hanging loose. There is at least one purlin of substantial scantling in the roof, and the secondary timbers appear to be of 19th-century date.

Boundary wall

A cob wall with clay tile pitched roof extends along the south-east and south-west boundaries of the garden. It is approximately 2 metres in height.