Marker's Cottage

Marker's Cottage is a cottage with a complex history, dating back to the 15th century, with significant changes in the 16th, 17th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It was renovated and returned to a single dwelling in the 1980s. The construction is primarily cob, with a stone plinth, rendered elevations, sandstone and brick end stacks, and a wheat reed thatched roof, with a gabled end to the left. A sloping thatched roof covers a later single-story right-hand extension, and a small back wing on the left has a slate roof and end stack.

The original design, circa 1500, was a three-cell through passage house with open roofs and plank-and-muntin screens dividing the rooms. Around 1530, a rear lateral hall stack was added. Around 1600, the hall was ceiled, a rear stair turret was built, and the house was generally improved. A kitchen wing was added in the late 17th century. In the mid-19th century, the cottage was divided into two dwellings, with new staircases and other alterations.

The exterior has two storeys and a three-window arrangement under a curved roof ridge line. The ground floor features two entrances and 19th-century two and three-light timber casement windows. Upper floor windows are two and three-light openings under eyebrow eaves, with an 18th-century, three-light casement on the right having leaded panes – four to the fixed side-lights, and eight to the center. The right-hand extension has a 20th-century window. The left-hand end of the house has two two-light casements, each with nine re-leaded panes.

Inside, significant original features survive. A hall/parlour screen with painted plank-and-muntin construction, dated stylistically to 1470-1510, remains, painted on both sides. An original 15th-century four-light window still has its central mullion. A circa-1600 three-light window has been rebated for glazing. Large areas of 17th-century plaster daub are visible, along with original joinery, beams, and door frames from various periods. Several fireplaces are also present. The roof structure features three pairs of jointed cruck trusses, with the southern and northern pairs extending down to ground level, the latter at the end of the painted screen. The remaining trusses rest on wooden plates in the cob walls above a stone plinth. The trusses are morticed and side-pegged at the apex, with diagonally set ridge pieces, collars, and purlins. The smoke-blackened rye thatch extends throughout the roof's length.