Craig Cottage

DITTISHAM SX 8655 16/274 LOWER STREET DITTISHAM Craig Cottage (formerly listed as block of 3 cottages 9.2.61 west of church)

GV II

House. Circa early to mid C17 with late C20 alterations and extension. Painted stone rubble. Slate roof, hipped at the right hand end and gabled at the left end abutting Highclere (qv). Red clay ridge tiles. Painted stone rubble at the right hand end with a rendered tapered top and a lowered clay pot. The rear lateral stack has been taken down. Plan: 2-room and through passage plan; the lower end room to the right heated from a gable end stack was probably the hall/kitchen; the slightly larger left hand room was probably the parlour with a lateral fireplace at the back and a rear stair turret between the fireplace and passage back doorway. The house is said to have been divided into cottages before the late C20 alterations which involved the removal of the right hand side partition of the passage and the formation of a small entrance lobby at the front of the passage; the rear lateral fireplace of the left hand room was made into a doorway for a 2-storey wing at the wing. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front. All 3-light C19 3-light casements with glazing bars except for a tiny 1-light ground floor window to the left and an early to mid C17 4-light casement to the left of centre with glazing bars (on the inside of the window frame the right of centre has a cyma and fillet moulded wooden doorframe, the left hand jamb has been replaced; the circa late C18 or C19 plank door has earlier wrought iron hinges. A late C20 glazed door to the left hand of the front. The right hand end wall has 2 small C19 casements under the eaves and a c20 3-light casement with glazing bars on the ground floor. At the back the projecting stair turret is buried in the late C20 rear wing. Interior: The fireplace at the right hand end has a large slightly cranked timber lintel with a cyma and filet moulding with rear straps which are partly embedded in the later stone rubble jambs. The rear lateral fireplace of the left hand room is now a doorway but the dressed slate jambs remain. To the right of this former fireplace a newel staircase with a wooden newel part and a wooden lintel over the doorway with scratch moulding. Later roughly chamfered ceiling beams. A fielded panel partition on the first floor. Roof: A 5-bay roof with straight principals, the roughly chamfered cranked collars are notch lap-jointed to the principals which have threaded purlins and mortice and tenoned apexes which have diagonal trenches for the ridgepiece which is missing.

Listing NGR: SX8607455066