Northwood Cottage

Northwood Cottage is a farmhouse, now a house, likely dating from the late 15th or early 16th century. It underwent substantial remodelling in the mid to late 17th century, and a further addition was made in the mid to late 19th century, with later 20th-century alterations both internally and externally. The construction is rendered cob with a Welsh slate roof. The roof has a gable on the left-hand side and a hipped roof on the right. Rendered stacks are located at the left end and at the rear wing. Originally following a two-room central-entrance plan facing north, the house likely had a late Medieval two- or three-room plan with a through passage. This was altered in the late 17th century with the flooring of the hall and the insertion of an end stack, and a staircase in the passage. The current staircase dates from the 19th century. An unheated inner room may have existed to the left of the hall, or a 16th or early 17th-century addition, but this was probably demolished during the 17th-century remodelling, potentially explaining the stack’s position. The roof was entirely replaced in the 17th century, although many earlier roof timbers were reused. A single-roomed wing was added to the rear of the passage in the 19th century, with a rear end stack. 20th-century alterations included the addition of a front porch. The front elevation presents a roughly symmetrical two-window facade featuring 19th-century three-light wooden casement windows with wooden lintels. A centrally positioned doorway has a 19th-century plank door with a wooden lintel, set within a 20th-century rendered gabled porch. Inside, the hall features a fireplace with deep splayed stone jambs, an unchamfered wooden lintel, and a bread oven with a 19th-century cast-iron door set in a taller arched opening. Both ground-floor rooms have rough ceiling beams and 20th-century plaster ceilings. There are likely 20th-century stud partitions flanking the 19th-century staircase. The roof structure includes a 17th-century four-bay roof with three trusses, featuring straight principals with pegged mortice and tenoned apices and pegged lap-jointed collars, constructed from smoke-blackened timber from the earlier Medieval roof. The remainder of the roof, including that over the rear wing, is 20th-century. A pile of old timbers was discovered in 1988 near the adjacent barns, including a chamfered ceiling half-beam with ogee stops and a probable former cruck blade. These timbers may have been removed from the house or from another demolished building on the site.