Nos 1, 2 And 3 Hillview

ST OO NE KENTISBEARE SAINTHILL 8/113 Nos 1, 2 and 3 Hillview - II Group of 3 cottages. No. 1 possibly early C16; no 2 probably a rebuilding of the C18 or early C19; no. 3 late C17. Roughcast cob; gable end slate and concrete pantile roof. Overall the cottages form an L-shaped group all of them single depth: no 1 contains 2 rooms, and 2 jointed crucks, and is divided from no 2 by a cob wall, which may originally have been an end wall; no 2 (not inspected internally), has been rebuilt (its later purlins are visible in the first floor room of no 1), and returns to occupy part of the rear wing. No 3 appears to be entirely late C17. Whether or not no. 1 is the fragment of an earlier farmhouse partially rebuilt when converted into cottages is not at all clear. Internal end stacks heat nos. 1 and 2 which also share an axial stack; nos 2 and 3 share an axial stack; brick shafts throughout. 2 storeys. Exterior Front: (nos 1 and 2, facing south): 3 window range, all first floor casement windows of 3-lights, C19 (2 to no. 1); 3 windows to ground floor, and 2 doorways, that to no. 1 deeply recessed, the reveals boarded, with a little C19 canopy on shaped brackets. Gable end of no. 1 (left-hand end) with small pegged window frame lighting stairs to side of formerly external end stack. Gable end to nos. 2 (right hand end) with C20 window. Front to no. 3 with 2 first floor C19 2- light casement windows; ground floor with central C20 timber porch, and 2-light casement window to either side. Rear of cottages with outshuts under catslide roof, lean-tos and other small extensions, and with some C19 casement windows. Interior: no. 1 with 2 jointed crucks, one to the division between the rooms which may be an original or early partition, the other close to the end of the house, which has had a huge bressumer morticed into its lower blade which serves both as the end fireplace lintel, and the arched head beam to the stairway. Left hand room with one and 2 half axial ceiling beams, chamfered with hollow step stops; no. 3 with straight roof principals and chamfered, unstopped ceiling beams. Roof space inaccessible. (The present occupier of no. 1 believes the roof timbers are smoke-blackened, and a photograph of the upper rooms before renovation confirms the impression: it could be the result of seepage from the end stack, however).

Listing NGR: ST0910808095