Rose Cottages

Rose Cottages is a row of three cottages in Ashprington, probably originally a single house dating from around the 16th century, extended in the 17th century, and subdivided into three separate cottages in the 19th century. The building is constructed of local stone rubble with an asbestos tile roof featuring gabled ends and a catslide at the rear covering outshuts. The gable ends and axial stacks are rendered, with a large rendered rear lateral stack now enclosed within the rear outshut, and another stack in the rear wall of the outshut.

The cottages form a row of three 2-room plan cottages with rear outshuts. No. 2 Rose Cottage and Rosemarie were probably the high end and low end respectively of an earlier 3-room plan house, its hall heated from a lateral stack at the back. The low end was possibly a shippon, as evidenced by two blocked ventilation slits in the right-hand gable end. Rosemarie was probably added around the 17th century at the high end. The subdivision into three cottages and construction of the outshut occurred around the 19th century.

The building stands two storeys high with an asymmetrical range of six small 2-light casements. Nos 1 and 2 Rose Cottages on the left and centre have early 19th-century casements with glazing bars and small panes. Rosemarie's windows on the right have been replaced by 20th-century casements but retain their small openings. Three doorways are present: Nos 2 and Rosemarie have plank doors, while No. 1 Rose Cottage has an early 19th-century fielded 6-panel door. All three cottages have early to mid 19th-century wooden lattice porches. The lower right-hand gable end wall of Rosemarie displays two blocked ventilation slits set low in the wall. At the rear, gabled half-dormers in the outshut contain 19th-century casements.

Internally, No. 1 Rose Cottage's left-hand room features an ovolo-moulded cross-beam with run-out stops and a blocked fireplace, while the smaller right-hand room has a large fireplace with a 20th-century timber lintel. Some early 19th-century panelled doors survive, though the staircase has been rebuilt. No. 2 Rose Cottage has no exposed early ceiling beams; its lateral stack contains a 20th-century brick fireplace. Rosemarie's lower right-hand room has a large unchamfered (or boarded over) cross-beam and a 20th-century fireplace.

The roof of No. 1 Rose Cottage has four trusses with straight principals, morticed collars, and holes for threaded purlins. The right-hand truss sits on the right side of No. 1's right stack, but the remaining roof covering Nos 2 and Rosemarie has been replaced with nailed elm trusses.