Clay's Cottage

A pair of cottages, likely dating to the 15th or early 16th century, and significantly altered in the 19th century. The lower portion of the walls are of random rubble, with cob above, and a brick end wall to the left. Originally part of a three-room cross-passage house, only the hall and inner room remain, the passage and service end having been demolished. The hall was open to the roof and displays heavy smoke blackening. The inner room is divided from the hall by a two-storeyed partition engaged in a truss, possibly a jointed cruck truss which was initially open, and likely covered by wattles, leading to light smoke blackening on the inner room side. A later addition was a smoke bay to the left of the left-hand truss. The inner room may have been originally two storeys high and later received a rear wing warmed by a lateral stone stack. The medieval roof of the inner room no longer exists, and the hall roof was replaced in the 19th century, extending over the hall. A late 16th-century floor was added, accessed by a stair turret at the rear of the hall, now part of the adjacent cottage. A late 19th-century internal stack was also added. The cottages are two storeys high. The front elevation has a two-window range, with 2-light 19th-century casement windows under depressed arches. There are 20th-century windows to either side of the central doorway of the left-hand end of number 3, and 20th-century windows to both floors and a doorway to number 2. Inside, there are chamfered ceiling beams, one of which (in number 3) has run-out stops, a framed partition between the hall and inner room, and two remaining medieval trusses, possibly jointed crucks with cranked collars, a diagonal ridge piece, trenched purlins, and some rafters, all smoke blackened. The smoke bay is constructed of cob and wattle, situated on the passage side of the lower hall truss. The hall originally comprised a single bay.