April Cottage

April Cottage is a house with origins possibly dating back to the 17th century, although it was significantly altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exterior is colourwashed rendered cob, built on stone rubble footings, and has a slate roof with a gable at the left end and a stack on that side. The house faces a small courtyard to the right of Fore Street. It was originally built as a single unit with the adjacent property, number 37, but the original layout is now difficult to determine. The current layout is of a single-depth, two-room width, with the left-hand room likely being a 17th-century parlour, originally containing a newel staircase near the stack. This staircase was later replaced with a straight one. The smaller right-hand room has been partitioned at the rear to create a small kitchen, formerly a dairy, and the present entrance is directly into this room. A projecting first-floor bathroom was added at the rear in the 20th century. The front of the house is asymmetrical, with a single window on the first floor. There is a 20th-century porch on the front right side, and two ground-floor windows with two lights each, containing three panes per light. A single first-floor casement window is also present. The left gable end, facing Fore Street, is highly irregular.

Inside, the ground floor on the left has a 20th-century grate, which may be concealing earlier features, and an ovolo-moulded axial beam with step stops. A straight 19th-century staircase rises along the rear wall. The rounded rear corner of the room indicates the previous location of a newel staircase. The roof structure could pre-date the 17th century, although access to the apex was not possible during a survey in 1986. The position of the front door has changed several times throughout history: at one point it was located to the left of the current entrance, providing direct access into the left-hand room, and at another it was on the left gable end, with entrance from the Fore Street side. The building was formerly known as Town Court and Fox's Tenement, and along with number 37, appears to have been part of a town farm.