18 AND 19

A pair of cottages, likely originating as a single house, dating probably to the 16th century and significantly altered and extended in the 19th and 20th centuries. The cottages are constructed of colour-washed stone rubble with a gable ended asbestos slate roof, higher over number 18. There is a brick stack at the left gable end and a rendered lateral stack at the rear. Initially, the house appears to have had two rooms, though the extension at the right-hand end may have replaced an earlier structure. Each principal room had a lateral stack—one at the rear of the right-hand room and one at the front of the left-hand room. Unusually, each room contained a separate newel staircase situated within a small projection. It is probable that a passage originally divided the two rooms. A one-room addition was added in the 19th century, and the building was subsequently divided into two properties. In the 19th century, the front wall of number 18 was built out, and the fireplace removed. A 20th-century extension was added to the rear of number 18 on the left-hand side. The cottages are two storeys high with an asymmetrical facade divided into three sections. Number 18 projects forward, while number 19 has an original section at the centre and an extension to the right. Number 18 has a 19th-century two-window front with sash windows, and a door is situated at the left gable end. Number 18 also has late 20th-century aluminium framed casement windows in both sections. A probable original segmental headed granite doorway with heavy roll-mouldings is located at the left-hand side, with a 20th-century Tudor style door and a similar door to the extension. The interior of number 19 shows no early features apart from stone newel stairs adjoining the reconstructed fireplace. Number 18 retains very heavy, chamfered cross beams on the ground floor with hollow step stops; a corbel is visible where the front wall was built out. A complete set of similarly decorated joists remains. The wooden newel stairs may have had the treads renewed, but the curved wall suggests their original location. A blocked single light window with a segmental chamfered granite surround is visible in the gable end wall on the first floor. Two original roof trusses survive, which are very substantial with threaded purlins, a morticed apex, diagonal ridge, and morticed cranked collars. These are positioned over the original left-hand room of the house; the roof trusses of number 19 were not inspected but, according to the owner, are of sawn timber.