Elmside the Post Office

Elmside, in Coldridge, Eastleigh, is a house and former post office, originally two cottages, with a section once used as a Chapel of Ease. The building dates to the 17th and 18th centuries, with a 20th-century extension forming the Post Office. The earlier 17th-century section is built of local stone rubble, plastered on the front, while the 18th-century part is of plastered cob on rubble footings. Stacks are of stone rubble or cob, topped with 20th-century brick; the roof is thatched, with corrugated asbestos to a service outshot and the Post Office area.

The house is a long, continuous range facing south. On the left (west) end is a two-room 17th-century cottage, adjoined to the right (east) by a three-room 18th-century cottage under a higher roof. The 17th-century cottage has stacks at each end, the right one now positioned axially, while the 18th-century cottage has an axial stack to the right of centre. In the 19th century, the left-end room of the 17th-century cottage had its first floor removed and was converted into a Chapel of Ease. A 20th-century service outshot and the Post Office extension are located at the rear of the east end.

The building has a seven-window front, with four windows to the 17th-century cottage and three to the 18th-century cottage, all late 19th and 20th-century casements. There are three front doors, two to the 17th-century cottage end, and the main door is located to the left of centre of the 18th-century cottage end. This is a late 19th- to early 20th-century plank door with a contemporary gabled porch, featuring glazed and trelliswork sides, now covered by a corrugated plastic roof. The roof is half-hipped to the right and gable-ended to the left. The left-end stack is disused, with its chimney shaft removed. A section of large volcanic ashlar blocks, possibly from an earlier building, is visible in the left-end wall.

The rear of the 17th-century cottage end has four blocked original small oak two-light windows with chamfered mullions, two on each floor. Inside the 17th-century cottage, most of the original carpentry detail is hidden behind 19th-century plaster, although the blocked end fireplace remains visible, featuring a hooded lintel with a soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel. In the 18th-century cottage end, the centre and right-end rooms have plainly-finished crossbeams, and the fireplace is blocked. The roof structure is inaccessible, but exposed feet of principals indicate that intact 17th and 18th-century A-frame truss roofs remain.