Old Traine and West Cottage

A large house now divided into two separate occupations, comprising a complex of buildings dating from the 16th and early 17th centuries with substantial modifications in the 18th century and 20th century. The walls are of rubble construction with slate roofs.

The building began as a courtyard house. The east range served as the service wing, while the north range, now incomplete, probably contained stables and a carriage house, possibly with an entry to the courtyard. The front, or south range, was probably originally a hall range with stair turrets projecting at either end into the courtyard. This south range was restructured in the early 18th century and given a new façade which survives today. By the early 1970s the entire complex, particularly the three rear ranges, had fallen into considerable dilapidation.

The front range is two storeys with two and three windows in each bay. All windows are twelve-pane sashes in moulded architraves, set flush to stone voussoirs at ground floor and wood lintels at first floor level; the first-floor window at the right end is a replacement executed to the same detail. Bay one has a broad six-panel door beneath a 20th-century gabled hood; a similar door is located in bay four, each set on two granite steps in a semicircular arrangement. The left end features a half-hipped roof with a three-light transomed casement below a twelve-pane sash. The right gable has a small brick chimney stack, and at the rear a 20th-century door in a heavy chamfered wood frame. A small ridge stack in 17th-century brickwork stands between bays two and three. The back of this range contains a square stair turret at each end and two two-light transomed casements, plus a double-hung sash with leading but no glazing bars. This range was probably originally a three-storey structure with a gabled front. A residual hall probably lay to the right of the ridge stack.

The left range is two storeys with a large external rubble gable stack. Its west front has three two-light over two two-light casements, while the courtyard front displays a good central 17th-century plank and fillet door flanked by two-light transomed casements. At the north end the range is built into the rising ground level.

The right range rises three storeys and has a 20th-century entrance and porch at upper level on the east side. The courtyard front features a central 17th-century plank and fillet door flanked by two-light moulded transomed casements, matching those on the opposite range. A short return wing at the north end was the former stable block, two storeys with two-light casements at ground floor level (the casements include glazing bars) and a stable door; it has a wood modillion cornice. To the left stands a doorway in remains of walling, possibly an original entrance to the courtyard.

West Cottage contains a good bolection mould early 18th-century fireplace, a cupboard niche with moulded arch, and some 17th-century doors with hinges. The kitchen in the back wing includes painted 17th-century panelling and a single large transverse beam, with a fireplace set between solid granite cheeks and a wood bressumer. There is also a good 17th-century door to the stair turret.

Old Traine features some small square 17th-century panelling with chip-work, a good shell niche cupboard, a bolection mould fireplace with eared surround, and dado panelling. The rear wing serves as an old kitchen with a large transverse beam, a fireplace set between granite cheeks, and a bread oven; a second oven is located externally, with granite linings and capping.

The building appears to have been abandoned as a major mansion house in favour of the Traine group of the 19th century in Braunston Street.