Elm View Popes

Two adjoining estate cottages, likely originally one house, stand in a row of four. They probably date to the late 16th or early 17th century, and may incorporate elements of an earlier, late medieval house. The walls are creamwashed and rendered, constructed with cob and stone rubble, and the roof is thatched with a plain ridge, gabled at the right end. A chimney stack with a brick shaft rises axially. The building has an L-shaped layout: a single-depth range faces south, with a single-story rear wing at a right angle. The main range follows a three-room and through-passage plan. Elm View, on the left, comprises the lower end, passage, and the hall (with the stack backing onto the passage). Popes, on the right, contains the inner room. A rear lean-to is likely a later addition. The internal layout suggests a possible medieval origin, though timbers inspected in 1987 appeared later.

Externally, the façade has an asymmetrical arrangement of two windows on the left and one on the right. The thatch forms an eyebrow over the three first-floor windows. Elm View features a 19th or 20th century plank front door with a thatched porch hood leading to the through passage. It has 20th century timber casement windows with square leaded panes. Popes has a 19th or 20th century plank front door with a thatched porch hood, a three-light 20th century timber casement to the left, and a two-light casement on the first floor, also with 20th century square leaded panes.

Inside Elm View, the right-hand room (the hall) has a chamfered axial beam. The fireplace has been reduced but the original lintel remains. A plank and muntin screen, with the remains of a blocked doorframe leading into Popes, forms a partition. The staircase rises from the through passage, parallel with the rear wall of the lower end. Straight principal rafters are visible as roof timbers on the first floor; these likely relate to the later enlargement of the first-floor windows. An earlier, possibly medieval, roof structure may still exist above. The apex of the roof was not inspected.

The buildings are situated within an outstanding estate village characterized by thatched buildings, several of which have medieval origins.