Plumtree Cottage

Plumtree Cottage is a cottage dating back to the 16th or 17th century, which has undergone significant alterations and modernization during the 20th century, including a circa 1980 extension. The exterior is plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with local stone and flint rubble and a 20th-century brick chimney shaft. The roof is thatched.

The original layout was a three-room and through-passage plan, facing east. It originally had an unheated room to the north, and a projecting front lateral stack in the former hall. An unheated service room was located to the south. In the 20th century, the passage doorway at the rear was blocked, and the hall, passage, and inner room were combined into one large room by removing the partition walls. The hall stack was likely rebuilt at this time. The roof structure was replaced in the late 19th or early 20th century, and much of the original carpentry detail has been replaced or removed, making it difficult to determine the cottage’s original structure, though it likely began as an open hall house. A one-room plan extension was added to the rear of the north end (former inner room) around 1980. The cottage is two storeys high.

The exterior features an irregular three-window front with 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is slightly left of centre and has a 20th-century plank door. A secondary rear doorway to the former service room incorporates a reused 19th-century studded plank door, originally from a church or chapel, featuring a two-centred arch head (though the top of the arch was cut off during its re-use). The roof is hipped at both ends.

The interior carpentry detail was largely removed or replaced in the 19th and 20th centuries. Remaining carpentry is plain and includes a late 19th or early 20th century A-frame roof truss.

Plumtree Cottage is part of a group of listed buildings which collectively form the dispersed hamlet of Rawridge.