Redwoods Thistle Cottage

Redwoods and Thistle Cottage is a house, originally dating to the early 17th century, or possibly earlier, with substantial alterations and remodelling over time. A further program of alterations was underway at Thistle Cottage when the property was surveyed in 1987. The house is constructed of stone rubble, with a whitewashed and rendered front elevation, and has a slate roof with gabled ends. There are a right-hand gable end stack and an axial stack.

The original plan appears to be of a three-room and through-passage house, though the layout is not entirely clear. A cross passage is located to the left of centre, and the stack of the left-hand room, significantly rebuilt, backs onto the passage. The room to the right of the passage has been subdivided but retains a good early 17th-century window. The right end of the house (Thistle Cottage) was not inspected during the survey, but is said to have been modernised. The right-hand end wall shows an earlier roofline, and retains a datestone indicating 1633.

The front elevation, facing north-east, is asymmetrical, with three windows. A 20th-century front door provides access to the cross passage of Redwoods. To the right of the front door is a four-light stone mullioned window with ovolo-moulded mullions, a hoodmould, and a king mullion. The other windows are mostly 20th-century, containing small-pane iron casements, with one plastic window on the ground floor to the right. Thistle Cottage is accessed on the return side, and includes a blocked bread oven internally and a concrete-faced niche.

The interior of Redwoods was inspected only. The cross passage has a plank and muntin screen, papered over, to the right, and a chamfered spine beam with run-out stops. A similar spine beam extends through a post-17th-century partition which now serves as a service room at the rear. A timber doorframe with a rounded head leads from the passage into the left-hand room; this room is plain, with no exposed carpentry, and has a partly blocked fireplace which may conceal an earlier lintel and jambs. The first floor and roof space were not inspected.

The house has origins in the 17th century, with a good 17th-century window, an oak screen, and the possible presence of other interior features concealed behind modern plaster. It has group value with George Park on the opposite side of the road.