Glebe Cottage

Glebe Cottage is a late 17th or early 18th century cottage, with subsequent 19th and 20th century alterations. It is constructed of painted rendered stone rubble and cob, with a half-hipped thatch roof. A brick stack is set back from the ridge towards the right end. The cottage backs onto the street and has a T-shaped plan. The layout includes two heated rooms to the right of a through-passage, a former dairy to the left, and former stables now converted into part of the dwelling beyond the dairy. A small service wing forms the base of the ‘T’.

The building has a complex development history, partly obscured by later alterations. The original core appears to be the two heated rooms, which share the main stack. The fireplace in the right-hand room is likely a later insertion, and the front wall at this end has been rebuilt in the 20th century. A lobby entrance leads into the stable, and it is unclear whether this is a later modification. The right-hand room may have initially served as an unheated service room associated with a larger kitchen or hall, later converted into a parlour when the cottage was extended to the left. The hall/kitchen contains a 19th-century newel staircase in the rear left-hand corner. The front service wing appears to be an 18th-century addition and was unheated until the 20th century. A solid wall and change in roof structure at the left end of the hall/kitchen signifies the addition of a through-passage and former dairy, probably also late 18th century. In the early 19th century, the cottage was extended further to the left with the addition of a lofted stable block, which was converted in the late 20th century to become part of the dwelling.

The exterior has two storeys and a six-window front. The windows are largely fitted with 20th-century diamond lead glazing, although some casements in the front wing and along the right-hand side of the main range retain their 19th-century timber casements. There is a gabled brick porch with a plank door leading to the lobby entrance. A lean-to porch on the left side of the front wing provides access to the through-passage, and another plank door is located to the right side of the front wing.

Internally, the cottage has been significantly altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The room at the right end has a single cross ceiling beam, which is unchamfered. There is a cambered brick arch to the fireplace. The former hall/kitchen features a rounded back to its fireplace, which contains a bread oven and a reused timber fireplace lintel. A recess in the cob wall creates a bench seat beside the fireplace, and a creamery niche is present in the end wall. It also has two unchamfered cross ceiling beams. The roof has rough 18th and 19th century trusses with pegged straight principals and waney rafters and purlins resting on backs. There is no evidence of smoke-blackening.