Jasmine Cottage And Rosemary Cottage

Jasmine Cottage and Rosemary Cottage are a pair of cottages, possibly originally a single house, dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with modernization work undertaken around 1960. They are constructed of plastered stone rubble, potentially with some cob, and have stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched, with slate to the outshots. The cottages were likely planned as two rooms each, facing south. Jasmine Cottage, the western of the two, has a central entrance lobby leading to a main staircase between the rooms. It features a gable-end stack and an axial stack shared with Rosemary Cottage, serving back-to-back fireplaces. Rosemary Cottage has a small projecting gable-end stack at its eastern end, and a staircase rises along the rear wall of its left room. Jasmine Cottage is therefore slightly larger than Rosemary Cottage. While it’s possible the cottages were created by subdividing a farmhouse, there’s no physical evidence to support this, though Jasmine Cottage might have been the principal rooms and Rosemary Cottage the service rooms of a former dwelling. Both cottages are two storeys high with continuous rear outshots. The front elevation has a symmetrical appearance with five windows, all approximately 1960 replacements with 16 panes, except for a contemporary fixed pane above the doorway of Jasmine Cottage. Jasmine Cottage comprises the left three windows, and Rosemary Cottage the right two. Both cottages have 20th-century front doors and matching gabled porches. A Beerstone plaque is set into the wall between the two cottages, though its inscription is illegible beyond the initial letters "I" and "B." The roof is gable-ended to the left and half-hipped to the right. Internally, no original carpentry detail is visible on the ground floor rooms, and all fireplaces are blocked by 20th-century grates. The joinery is largely 20th century. The roof space was not inspected.