Pludda Thatch And Little Reeds

A pair of cottages, likely originally a farmhouse, dating probably to the 16th century or late medieval period, with a 20th-century addition at the rear of Pludda Thatch. The cottages are constructed of roughcast stone or cob walls topped with a thatched roof, half-hipped at the left-hand end. Each cottage features a large projecting chimneystack in the rear wall, with a later shaft added on top. Pludda Thatch’s stack has a tapered top, partially disguised by later additions, with a projecting course of stone below. At the north-east corner of Pludda Thatch is a small, rendered stack, likely from the 19th or 20th century.

The original layout isn’t entirely clear, but Little Reeds, on the right-hand side, probably comprised the former hall and inner room. It now contains two heated rooms on the ground floor with a straight flight of stairs between them. The front of the cottages has five windows. All windows except for the altered right-hand ground-floor window are 19th or early 20th-century wood casements with small panes. Pludda Thatch’s front doorway is in the third bay from the left, featuring an old plank door with an inserted window, alongside a porch with thin rendered walls (probably brick) and a thatched lean-to roof. To the right of the doorway are two windows in each storey, irregularly placed, each with two lights and six panes per light. Above the doorway is a two-light window with three panes per light, rising into the thatch. On the ground floor to the right are two windows with two lights and six panes per light, with a large buttress featuring a splayed top between them. The front doorway of Little Reeds is in the second bay from the right and has an old plank door with an inserted window. The second-storey windows on Little Reeds include one of two lights with three panes per light, and another of four lights with three panes per light. The right-hand gable has three 19th or early 20th-century wood casements, each with two lights and two panes per light; two are in the second storey, and one is off-centre to the right on the ground floor. A smaller, probably 20th-century, window is located in the centre of the ground floor. At the right-hand end is a plank door with an inserted window and a glazed lean-to porch, likely from the 19th century, with a corrugated asbestos roof. Rear windows are 19th or early 20th-century wood casements with small panes.

Inside Little Reeds, a large granite fireplace is found in the rear wall of the left-hand room; it’s hollow-moulded with very worn pyramid stops and has a flat lintel made of a single piece of stone, with a rectangular stone opening serving as the former location of an oven. The cottages share a complete roof, which appears smoke-blackened, although the thatch has been renewed. Trusses feature threaded purlins and a ridge piece, with chamfered run-out stops. Most collars have been removed, but one truss retains a cranked collar. A partially exposed principal rafter foot shows the edge of a jointed cruck. A closed truss with wattle-and-daub infill is found to the right of the staircase. The interior of Pludda Thatch was not inspected.