The Cottage

The following building shall be added to the list: SU 02 NW FOVANT BROOK LANE

4/195 The Cottage

II Small house. Probably C16, moulded in circa C17 and C18 and in C20. Painted sandstone with dressed sandstone front. Hipped plain tile roof. StacKs at sides with rebuilt brick shafts.

Plan: 2-room plan with central entrance into the right-hand room, straight stairs against the partition and C20 wing at rear. Originally both rooms were open to the roof, heated by separate open hearth fires and divided by a closed truss; it was probably part of a larger range. The circa C17 floors were inserted and a side stack built to serve the left room, while the right-hand room may have been unheated after the floor was inserted. The house was refronted in circa C18, although one of the window keyblocks has date 1670.

Exterior: 2 storeys. Symmetrical 2-window west front. C19 or C20 3-light casements with glazing bars and keystones to flat arches; ground floor left window has circa C18 casement and keystone with inset wooden tablet inscribed with illegible initials, the name Jay and date 1670. Central doorway with C19 plank door. Casements on returns and with C20 single storey wing at rear.

Interior: The left hand room has chamfered axial beams with ogee stops, large fireplace with chamfered cambered timber lintel and sections of C17 or C18 moulded plaster cornice. The right hand room has roughly chamfered axial beam, exposed joists and C20 fireplace. On first floor the closed truss is exposed; it is a raised cruck with cambered morticed collar, infilled with wattle-and-daub and smoke-blackened on both sides (evident in roof space); the purlins appear to be trenched but the trenched diagonal ridgepiece is missing. The common rafters have been removed and a C20 roof built above.

Note: "Jay" on the keyblock is reputedly the name of a Wilton estate mason.

Listing NGR: SU0068728377