Spanishlake Cottage And Adjoining Barn

Spanishlake Cottage and Adjoining Barn

A cottage and threshing barn, now disused, dating from the late 18th century. The barn is dated 1771, while the cottage may be slightly later. Both buildings are constructed of cob on stone rubble footings, formerly plastered and limewashed, with corrugated iron roofs gabled at the ends. The cottage has a projecting cob end stack with a cob chimney shaft. Some repairs have been made using breeze block and brick.

This is a rare survival of what was once a common type of building: a single-room laboured's cottage attached directly to a farmbuilding. Remnants of walling to the east suggest the buildings formed part of a former farmstead. The structures form a south-facing range, with the threshing barn occupying the eastern end and the cottage at the western end.

The barn is single-storey with opposed doorways facing east and west. The south front has a blocked doorway with a timber lintel, and part of the front wall to the east is missing. A concrete block buttress supports the front wall, and a brick gable on the right return replaces what was originally a half-hipped roof end. The threshing doorway on the rear (north) elevation has a timber lintel, with the roof brought down as a canopy over it.

The cottage is two-storey. Its front wall no longer exists but would have contained the only external doorway to the entire building. A small first-floor window with a timber frame under the eaves is splayed on both outer and inner faces. The cob stack on the west return has a low cob shaft with slate capping. A straight joint and slight change in plane marks the junction between barn and cottage.

Internally, the barn walls are plastered. The date 1771 appears on the north wall in plaster relief, with the initials SW separated from the date by an incised diamond. A small splayed window high up on the west wall is blocked from when the cottage was added. The roof structure comprises two pegged X-shaped apex collar rafter trusses with ridge, purlins and rafters intact. Plastered battens around the former half-hip at the west end suggest the barn was originally slated rather than thatched.

The cottage interior, though incomplete on the first floor and missing its front wall, retains almost all its original simple features. The ground floor has a cobbled floor and an open fireplace with a timber lintel and evidence of a former bread oven. A chamfered crossbeam with run-out stops spans the room, with chamfered joists to the north of it; the joists to the south are missing. A steep timber staircase in the north-west corner has a straight flight with a winder. The heated ground floor room originally connected to the first floor via this staircase.

The first floor is divided into two rooms. The rear (north) room is lit only by the small window under the eaves. A partition wall of timber studs with lath and plaster infill (the plaster now missing) divides the north room from the south room, with a doorway hung with a two-plank door with strap hinges and gudgeon hooks. A single pegged collar rafter roof truss at the east end retains its rafters and purlins intact.

Scarcely any surviving evidence exists in the county of purpose-built farm labourers' housing earlier than the 19th century. This example, with so many of its original details and its relationship to a farmbuilding intact, is particularly important.