Elmside, Bass'S Orchard And Lavender Cottage

A row of three cottages, dating from the early 16th century with later alterations. The construction is primarily of roughcast cob on stone footings, with a random rubble and brick extension at the extreme right end, and plastered surfaces. The roofs are hipped and thatched. The original layout is complex; the two left-hand cottages, Elmside and Bass's Orchard, originally had open roofs blackened by smoke. These roofs are of an unusual design with long, massive diagonal ridge pieces supported at each end by large uprights extending to ground level, the one at the Lavender Cottage end embedded in a cob wall. The ridge piece is supported in the middle by a jointed cruck. Purlins are backed onto the trusses. All original timbers are smoke blackened. Lavender Cottage has a jointed cruck roof and was originally two storeys high. It might have been the inner room of a three-room, cross-passage plan house, with Elmside functioning as the hall and a long service end. The primitive roof construction suggests the row may have started as cottages, with Lavender Cottage added in the late 16th century.

The cottages are two storeys high, with irregular window placement. The front features four 12-pane horizontally sliding sash windows with wooden sill guide pegs, a two-light casement window, and two small 20th-century single-light windows to the first floor. There are also wide, possibly 17th or 18th century door surrounds to Bass’s Orchard and Lavender Cottage; a 20th-century glazed door is at Elmside. Ground floor windows match the description above, with four sashes and two two-light casement windows. There is one axial stack to Lavender Cottage, another stack rising from the roof of Bass’s Orchard, and external rear lateral stacks to Elmside and Bass's Orchard - all with brick shafts, originally serving four separate cottages.

Inside, the roof of Lavender Cottage features a clean jointed cruck, with a late truss crossed at the apex. The cruck apexes have mortise and peg joints.