Winswood Cottages

The property comprises three cottages, originally a farmhouse, likely dating from the 17th century. A significant alteration occurred in 1733, involving the addition of a two-storey porch and a single-room bay to the left end. Later changes occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of rendered stone rubble and cob, with a corrugated asbestos roof, hipped at the left end. It features an axial brick stack and a brick shaft to a stone rubble stack at the right gable end. Unusually, the original layout was a three-room and lobby-entry plan, with an axial stack providing heat to the two rooms at the higher end, and a hall to the right. The lower level room on the right end appears to have always functioned as the kitchen and service area. The two-storey porch and the left-end bay were built in 1733. A projecting stair turret is located at the rear of the hall. The farmhouse was converted into cottages in the early 20th century, with staircases added to the principal room at the left end and the service area at the right end, and a partition creating a passage at the right end. The building is two storeys high, with a five-window front, including the two-storey porch. All windows are 20th-century replacements, except for a 17th-century four-light mullion window at the right end, featuring deeply chamfered mullions dividing the window into two paned lights. Two tiers of pigeon holes are located at the right end. A 1733 datestone, originally bearing the initials W.T., was replaced in 1986. The ground floor features 20th-century casements, a partially cased-in 17th-century straight-headed, chamfered door surround to the inner porch doorway, and two plank doors, the one on the right having a lean-to porch and a 20th-century casement to the right end. There is also a lean-to at the right gable end. Inside cottage number three (the lower end), there are two cross ceiling beams, which are plastered over. A cambered brick lintel to the fireplace has a cloam bread oven stamped "FISHLEY." The hall lacks exposed ceiling beams, and the original fireplace is probably concealed. The principal room at the left end retains a wide chamfered axial ceiling beam and a chamfered fireplace lintel. Most of the 19th-century joinery remains intact throughout the building. While roof space access is not available, 17th- and 18th-century roof trusses with straight principals are apparently in place.