Ruskin Cottage

Ruskin Cottage is a house and attached row of seven cottages dating from the 1850s. Ruskin Cottage is constructed of limestone ashlar, while the other cottages are of coursed and dressed limestone. They have slate and concrete tile roofs, with each dwelling featuring moulded cornicing to the end stacks. Ruskin Cottage has a double-depth plan and a basement, with three storeys, while the other cottages are two storeys high. The south-west front of Ruskin Cottage has a decorative cast-iron first-floor balcony and 6/6-pane and 8/8-pane sash windows with horns. The row of cottages features plain raised architraves to 6/6-pane first-floor sashes and 3/6-pane ground-floor sashes, with some later 19th-century and 20th-century replacements to the windows of numbers 4, 5, and 6, and to the panelled doors (which are 20th-century replacements to numbers 4-6) and their overlights. The interiors have not been inspected. The row represents a well-preserved example of workers’ housing, built during an area’s development for housing and industry following the arrival of the railway in 1840-1. The style is similar to cottages built for workers at Rowland Brotherhood’s engineering works on Marshfield Road.