Gilbrook Cottages

A row of three cottages, likely dating to the early 16th century or earlier, with subsequent alterations. The walls are roughcast cob on stone footings, topped with a gabled roof. Originally built with a three-room, baffle-entry plan, the higher end of the original dwelling is to the right of the original entrance, and it includes a barn extension, possibly from the 17th century, at the service end. It is reported that the original structure was open to the roof and smoke-blackened. The axial stack served both the service end and the hall, with a side oven to the service-end fireplace. A newel stair is located to the rear, opposite the entrance. The cottages are two storeys high. The front elevation has a nine-window range; the casement windows are from the late 20th century. Two first-floor windows are situated under eyebrow eaves, and there are seven ground-floor windows, with a late 20th-century bay window on the far left. Rear extensions date to the 19th and 20th centuries. Internally, the former barn (cottage number 3) retains straight roof principals. Cottage number 2 (the service end) reveals jointed cruck timbers in the upper room, along with trenched purlins; a chamfered lintel is present above the first-floor fireplace. Cottage number 1 has not been inspected internally, but possesses a stopped chamfered cross ceiling beam. The barn roof principals are straight. A plank and muntin screen, originally from Govetts (now demolished), was used in 1965 to replace a decayed screen between the hall and inner room, as documented by Ursula W Brighouse in Woodbury, A View from the Beacon (1981), pages 243-4.