Woodside Cottage

Woodside Cottage

Woodside Cottage is a Grade II listed building consisting of a two-storey house of early modern date with substantial later outbuildings. The original house has a rectangular footprint with a 19th-century barn or shed attached to the west and ruinous 19th-century outbuildings along the north elevation.

The building was constructed using chert rubble for the lower parts, with cob forming the upper portions. This may result from the building being raised by half a storey, though the cob could equally have been employed to facilitate bedding of the roof timbers. The roof was formerly thatched; some thatch remained on the east end at the time of inspection, covered by corrugated iron sheeting which also shelters the attached western shed. The A-frame roof structure retains some historic pegged oak timbers but has undergone considerable adaptation.

The south-facing elevation is symmetrical, presenting two windows flanking a central doorway with a segmental-arched head. In 2010 this elevation was substantially rebuilt following the pattern then existing, with a small section at the eastern end—including part of the eastern ground-floor window—retaining lime render. The rebuilding re-used the original chert, though the cob upper part was not reproduced; the wall is now lined internally with concrete blocks. The ground-floor window openings formerly held three-light timber mullioned windows and contained no frames at inspection. The blind west gable ends short of the apex, indicating that the roof was once half-hipped at both west and east ends. This wall is now obscured by the 19th-century shed, which features a tall south-facing opening flanked by broad buttresses of later construction. The west and north walls of the shed have largely disintegrated and are clad in corrugated iron. The north elevation of the house has a doorway towards the west end with a timber lintel, reinforced with brick. Beside it to the west is a window opening with timber lintel, and above this a 20th-century window opening with rough brick surround, now blocked. The east elevation contains a small ground-floor window towards the rear, now reduced in size. The central stack has been lost above roof level.

Internally, the house follows a lobby-entry plan with a central chimney stack serving two ground-floor rooms, one to west and one to east. The large central stack dominates the interior; any internal partitions have been lost. In the 19th century the southern section of the stack was rebuilt in brick either side of the central wall, and the fireplaces were fitted with brick cheeks. Each fireplace has a framed chamfered oak surround; the outer face of the western room's lintel is decayed but shows a chamfer inside, suggesting timber re-use. An alcove lies to the north of each fireplace: in the west room this contains a 19th-century cupboard; in the east room it houses a side oven opening from the fireplace and now lined in brick. This fireplace has been reduced in depth to contain a Victorian range. A winder stair of 19th-century date occupies the north-west corner of the east room, rising above the side oven and probably replacing an earlier arrangement. Each ground-floor room is spanned by an axial beam resting on the fireplace lintel to support the upper floor. These beams are chamfered with scroll stops, consistent with a mid- to late-17th-century date; they respect the fireplace openings. In the eastern room the eastern end of the beam has been cut, removing evidence of stops; in the western room the beam mouldings are largely destroyed by rot, though the stop shapes remain visible at the eastern end. A small recess is present in the end wall of the eastern room. The ceiling survives over the eastern room but has largely collapsed over the western room. The upper rooms were not inspected and are understood to be unheated with no significant historic details, though 19th-century boarded doors giving access from the stair survive.