Ashwood And Ashwood Cottage

Ashwood and Ashwood Cottage are two cottages, originally a single house, dating to around the early 16th century. The building was altered in the 17th century, extended, and likely converted into two cottages in the 18th century. The walls are of rendered rubble and cob, with the cob exposed at the rear of Ashwood Cottage. The roof is covered in asbestos slate with gable ends. There are several brick and rubble stacks, including an axial stack to Ashwood, an original lateral stack to Ashwood Cottage, a gable stack to Ashwood, and a small gable stack to Ashwood Cottage.

The original layout was a three-room and through-passage house, possibly with a hall open to the roof. Jettied chamfers are present over the inner room and the lower room/passage, the authenticity of which is uncertain. The hall was ceiled in the early 17th century when a front lateral fireplace was added. A gable-end fireplace is found in the inner room. Extensions were added at the upper end, with a probable division of the hall to create two cottages at that time. A 19th-century outshut was added to the front of Ashwood Cottage.

The front of Ashwood has an asymmetrical appearance with three windows, likely dating to the early 20th century, which are 1, 2, and 3-light casements with small panes on the first floor. The ground floor windows are similar 19th-century 2-light windows, with a 20th-century 2-light casement to the right and a single light to the far left. A recessed section of wall is present to the left of the centre, featuring a 20th-century panelled door under a gabled porch. An outshut is attached to the left gable end. Ashwood Cottage features a 19th-century outshut across the front with three windows. The left-hand window is an early 19th-century 16-pane hornless sash. To its right is a small 20th-century fixed light, and to the far right a 20th-century casement. A 20th-century stable door is to the right of centre, with a single-storey 20th-century extension to the right of the outshut.

The interior of Ashwood, formerly the inner room, contains a longitudinal beam, chamfered with ogee stops. An original roof truss with curved feet, possibly a jointed cruck, is located above the inner room. This truss features a cambered mortices collar with threaded purlins and is not smoke-blackened. Ashwood Cottage contains a 16th-century plank and muntin screen at the upper end of the hall, with chamfered muntins and mason’s mitres to the head-beam, although the base is rotted. A concealed internal jetty, consisting of projecting joists, is reported to be located above the screen. The hall ceiling features two substantial chamfered cross beams with hollow step stops, with similarly decorated joists on either side. The ceiling level drops at the lower beam, suggesting another internal jetty. The decorated joists formerly continued across the passage, and there was probably another screen on the lower side. The former lower room contains two cross beams, the upper one of which is chamfered with ogee stops. In the front wall of the lower room are two blocked 2-light wooden mullion windows.