Honeysuckle Cottage

Honeysuckle Cottage is a detached cottage in Eastleach, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century. It originated as a mirror pair of workers' cottages and has been largely preserved in its original condition.

CONSTRUCTION

The building is constructed from limestone rubble brought to course, set under a Cotswold stone slate roof, with later rubble stone stacks.

PLAN AND LAYOUT

Each cottage was originally planned as one-and-a-half rooms, with a large main living room to the south and a small rear pantry to the north. A stone-built winder stair rises alongside the main living room to the attic room, which is entirely contained within the roof space and lit through the gable end. A small lean-to extension has been added to the west.

EXTERIOR

The building is of a single storey and attic, with a steeply pitched roof and central stack. The main elevation to the south has two square timber casements of the late 19th or early 20th century to each former cottage, set under soldier courses of upright stone. The 20th-century entrance doorway is situated within the lean-to extension on the west. The rear elevation, facing the road, has a modern entrance doorway set off-centre, with single windows to left and right. The eastern gable end has small windows to the ground floor—one lighting the former living room and one the pantry—with a larger window in the gable above to light the attic room. A similar window appears in the western gable end.

INTERIOR

Each cottage retains its original large fireplace with a shallow segmental arched opening, adjacent to which is the stone-built winder stair, behind a plank-and-batten door. The pantry of the western cottage has been slightly remodelled to create an entrance lobby and bathroom, while that of the eastern cottage has been incorporated into the main room, though the wall stubs remain in place. The attic rooms have wide wooden floorboards and show roughly-hewn twin purlins as the only visible evidence of the roof structure.

HISTORY AND ALTERATIONS

Honeysuckle Cottage was probably associated with the nearby farm to the north and formed part of a small group of houses and cottages including Walnut Tree Cottage immediately to the south and Fyfield Cottages to the north, all dating from the 17th century. The cottages were recorded on the tithe map of 1840. Between 1840 and circa 1882, when the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map was published for this area, the two cottages were converted to a single dwelling with the addition of the lean-to extension to the west, which now houses the kitchen. The building has remained largely unaltered since this period.