Forge Cottage And Thyme Cottage

A pair of cottages, Forge Cottage dating to around 1600 and Thyme Cottage later in the 17th century, both significantly remodelled subsequently. The cottages are constructed of roughcast cob on stone footings, with gabled-end thatched roofs. Forge Cottage is a simple two-cell building, with the larger room formerly heated by an end stack which is now axial. The smaller, left-hand room remains unheated. Thyme Cottage is larger, likely originally a two-room plan, the right-hand room heated by an external end stack, with a side oven and smoking chamber under a separate lean-to roof. The cottages are two storeys high. At the front, Forge Cottage has one first-floor two-light casement window under eyebrow eaves, and three two-light windows below. Thyme Cottage has three first-floor casement windows, all of two-lights, two under eyebrow eaves, and two windows to the ground floor, including one with a 19th-century three-light casement. A central half-hipped thatched porch is present. The rear of Forge Cottage has no first-floor windows and two doors on the ground floor. Thyme Cottage has 20th-century extensions and windows. The interior of Forge Cottage features a jointed cruck; a rough partition divides the two rooms, and a bressumer supports the first-floor room. There are mortices in the bressumer for what was originally a ground-floor screen which is now largely gone.