Burton Hall Cottage

Burton Hall Cottage is a house, originally a farmhouse, dating probably to the early 16th century, with alterations in the 17th and partial rebuilding in the 20th century. The walls are rendered cob with some stone, and the roof is thatched, hipped to the right end and nipped to the left. There is an axial brick stack and a projecting rendered rubble or cob stack at the right gable end with a brick shaft. The house was originally planned with three rooms and a cross-passage, the lower end being to the right. It likely started as an open-hall house with a central hearth, though this is uncertain without roof access. A high-quality modernisation occurred in the late 16th to early 17th century, likely in stages, with the hall remaining open while the lower and higher ends were floored, and the room above the passage jettied into it. This modernisation was completed by the insertion of a hall ceiling and its stack, backing onto the passage. A lower room gable end fireplace may be contemporary and a winder staircase was added in a projection at the rear. In the mid-20th century, the front and end walls of the inner room were rebuilt. The two-storey front has an asymmetrical appearance with four window bays. The first floor has 20th-century casements, the outer ones being three-light and the inner ones two-light; the right-hand one is set into a 17th-century moulded wooden frame. The ground floor has two 20th-century two-light casements to the left and centre, and a small-paned three-light casement to the right. A 19th-century plank door is located to the right of the centre, behind a wide, open-fronted 20th-century timber porch with a shallow-pitch gabled roof. The rear elevation has a shallow rectangular stair projection at the left-hand end with a probably original wooden frame to a single-light window. Inside, a plank and muntin screen separates the passage and lower room; the muntins are chamfered on the lower side and moulded on the passage side, with a moulded head beam. The winder stairs are preserved at the rear of the lower room, with wooden treads on stone steps. The blocked hall fireplace has a wooden lintel and granite jambs. A richly moulded beam, likely for a jetty, is located above the door from the passage to the left of the fireplace. Visible features include a heavy chamfered ceiling beam and roughly chamfered joists. The inner room has a heavy chamfered axial beam with ogee stops. The roof over the hall has a pair of side-pegged jointed crucks, while the roof over the lower end of the passage has a closed truss with a tie-beam, into which a 17th-century doorframe has been inserted.