Bickingcott Cross

Bickingcott Cross is a cottage that likely dates from the early to mid-17th century, with alterations made in the 19th century and further modifications and extensions in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of uncoursed stone rubble, painted on the front, with rendered cob beneath the eaves. It features a gable-ended roof covered with asbestos slate, and there is an outhouse with a mono-pitch corrugated asbestos roof. A rendered stone stack with weatherings is present, along with a 20th-century rendered addition.

The original plan consists of a two-room layout facing south, with the larger room on the right. There are integral end stacks and a roughly central entrance, which is now blocked, located at the left-hand end of the larger room. An adjoining 19th-century outhouse is positioned at right angles to the left. The eaves may have been raised during the same period as the cob beneath them suggests. A late 20th-century addition to the left has created a one-room plan. The cottage is two storeys high, while the outhouse is only one storey.

The exterior features an asymmetrical three-window front with late 20th-century two-light plastic windows set in the original openings. The central ground-floor window was formerly a doorway, as indicated by the rendered wall beneath it. There is a probable straight joint between the first and second windows from the left. The entrance is now located in the 20th-century left-hand addition. In front of the door is an outbuilding with two boarded doors that have wooden lintels, the right-hand door leading into the house.

Inside, the right-hand ground-floor room has a pair of moulded cross beams and an open fireplace at the right-hand end, which features a chamfered wooden lintel and a bread oven with a cast-iron door. The left-hand room also has chamfered cross beams and an open fireplace at the left-hand end. To the right of the fireplace is an 18th-century cupboard with one raised and fielded panel. The roof space contains three roof trusses, which are likely from the 17th century, although the roof space itself has not been inspected.