Higher Woodland Cottages

A pair of cottages in Woodland Hamlet, formerly a single farmhouse occupied for several generations by the Culling family. The building dates from the early 16th century or possibly earlier, with 18th or 19th century additions at No. 2.

The structure is built of stone—coursed rubble at No. 1 and random rubble at No. 2—with a brick addition. The roof is covered in asbestos slate, with corrugated iron on the brick addition. The plan is L-shaped, with the main range (now No. 2) containing a 3-room layout with through passage, and the kitchen wing (now No. 1) at right angles to the inner room. The arrangement is unusual in that the room below the passage appears to have functioned as a parlour. Behind the parlour is an older stone addition containing reused 16th or 17th century beams, though it is probably 18th century work. A brick addition behind the hall stack dates to the 19th century or possibly later.

The building is 2 storeys, with a single-storey brick addition. No. 2 is 3 windows wide with an off-centre doorway to the left, featuring a 20th century door and porch with asbestos-slated pent roof. To the left of the doorway on the ground storey is a reused wooden ovolo-mullioned window of 2 lights with the right-hand side missing. To the right are a large window and a small window. Large projecting chimney-stacks with set-offs and tapered tops appear in the right-hand gable and at the rear of the hall. West of the hall stack is a slight single-storey projection containing a window with a slated pent roof, probably the original hall oriel. In the west gable at ground level is a 3-light wooden window with plain mullions and diagonally-set vertical bars in the centre lights. No. 1 is 2 windows wide, with a large projection to the right (in the angle of the L) having a single window in its second storey and a pent roof. The 19th century door to the left of the projection has 2 flush panels below and a 9-light glazed panel above. There is 1 window to the left on the ground storey, and in the left-hand gable a large projecting chimney stack with set-offs and plain top. Front windows in both cottages, except No. 1's ovolo-mullioned window, have 19th or early 20th century wooden casements.

The interiors, particularly the ground storey of the main range (No. 2), are unusually well-preserved. All three partitions are of stud-and-panel construction with chamfered studs where visible; the partitions are boarded at both ends of the hall. In the through passage, studs have diagonal cut stops, with a shouldered head to the hall doorway and a cranked head to the lower room doorway. In the lower room, studs have run-out stops set high enough to allow for a bench. The doorway from the hall to the inner room has a cranked head; all three doorways have plank doors, with strap hinges on the lower room door. The hall fireplace has a wood lintel on moulded stone corbels. To its right is a round-headed doorway with shouldered durn-jambs opening into a stair turret; the plank door has wrought-iron strap hinges, probably original. In the opposite wall at the west end is a doorway with a 2-centred head and shouldered durn-jambs, opening onto a stair with winding stone steps projecting into No. 1. At the lower end of the hall, the ceiling level drops slightly, possibly concealing an internal jetty projecting into what was formerly an open hall. The lower room has chamfered ceiling-beams without stops and a fireplace with an ovolo-moulded wood lintel having run-out stops. The rear doorway of the through passage has a chamfered wood lintel with step-stops. At the top of the stairs at the rear of the hall is a reset balustrade of rather primitive late 17th century turned balusters. The roof was rebuilt in the 19th century. No. 1 has a fireplace with plain wood lintel in the south wall of the ground storey and chamfered ceiling-beams without stops. A round-headed doorway with shouldered durn-jambs in the front wall opens to the projection, possibly a former stair turret, making three in the original house. The building retains probably original roof-trusses (unblackened) with cranked collar-beams and butt purlins, some staggered, and no ridge.

The building group stands in close proximity to the church tower.