Brownstone Cottage

A house, originally probably a farmhouse, with a core dating to the 16th century, significantly rebuilt in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and improved in the mid 17th century. It was modernised and enlarged around 1971. The house is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with rubble stacks incorporating 19th and 20th-century brick chimney shafts, and a circa 1971 slate roof, formerly thatched. It has a three-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south-west, with an inner room at the north-west end. A circa 1971 addition stands at right angles to the service room. A large lateral stack projects from the front of the hall, along with a newel staircase, and a separate rear lateral stack projects from the service room. The house has two storeys and a five-window front with circa 1971 casement windows with glazing bars. A passage door is situated between the hall stack and a circa 1971 stone buttress and secondary glazed door, leading to the former inner room. The roof is hipped at each end. Internally, there are good features largely dating to the late 16th and early 17th centuries. An oak plank-and-muntin screen partitions the passage from the hall, featuring a central pair of flat-arched doors and a head beam with rows of cut canted eyelets and serifs. A similar oak plank-and-muntin screen is located further up the hall. This screen has chamfered muntins with cut diagonal stops. The head beam moulding is more elaborate, incorporating a band of carved foliage transitioning into a geometric pattern above the doorway, although the head of the door is missing. The hall features a chamfered and step-stopped cross beam and a stone fireplace with an oak lintel, chamfered with straight cut stops, and an inserted brick oven. To the right of the fireplace is a square-headed oak door frame leading to the newel stair, and a low, flat-arched door frame giving access to the first floor. While the roof was mostly replaced around 1971, a side-pegged jointed cruck with mortices for threaded purlins survives over the hall-inner room screen. This includes a tie beam with the head of a round-headed door, which has been reset. The service room end was apparently rebuilt in the mid-17th century and includes a chamfered elm cross beam with bar-runout stops. The service fireplace has a brick side oven. Brownston is first mentioned in 1330 and the house is documented back to 1491.