Elston and Lake Cottage

Two adjoining houses, likely originally one dwelling. The structure probably incorporates elements of an earlier building with remodelling and extensions dating to the 16th and 17th centuries. The walls are rendered cob, with a hipped wheat-reed thatched roof. Two brick axial stacks define the extent of the original house. The original layout was probably two or three rooms with a cross or through-passage, later with a narrower one-room extension to the left and a wider one-room addition to the right, plus a 20th-century lean-to to the front on the right side. The building is two storeys high, with the first floor partly within the roof space. The south front is irregular, featuring three windows. Doorways are located to the far left and within the lean-to, both with 20th-century doors. The original doorway position was likely where the third ground floor window is now. The left-hand house has a 20th-century four-pane, two-light casement window, and a twelve-pane, two-light casement above within a pointed arched opening. The other house primarily features small-paned, two to three-light casement windows. Two first-floor windows have eyebrows, and there is a 20th-century eyebrowed roof dormer. The rear, east end, projects, but the first-floor walling has less projection, resembling a reverse jetty. The interior of Lake Cottage contains an axial fireplace with a bread oven, rough chamfered cross beams with run-out stops, and exposed joists. The roof trusses of Lake Cottage are clean and have morticed apices and lap-jointed collars. The roof space of Elston is not accessible, but it has a deeply chamfered ceiling beam with bar stops. The group value is that this property demonstrates a fascinating evolution of domestic architecture across multiple centuries.