Mutlow Cottage

Mutlow Cottage

A farm worker's cottage dating from the mid to late 18th century, probably originally two dwellings. The building is constructed from limewashed local sandstone brought to course, with brick stacks, set under a plain clay tile roof.

The cottage is oriented north-south and is built into a bank on ground which rises to the south. It has a single depth plan in two ranges, with an outshut to the rear of the northern range housing a scullery. Each range has a single room on the ground floor, with a stair in the southern range. The first floor has a single room to the south and two to the north.

The house is of three bays with a front elevation of two storeys. To the rear, the building is set into the bank so the first floor appears at ground level. The northern range is of two bays with a central entrance door flanked by segmental headed window openings to the ground floor and rectangular windows to the first floor. The southern range has an entrance door to the left with similar windows. Both doors are plain plank doors. The windows are oak-framed casements with leaded glass and iron fittings; the ground floor of the southern section has three lights, with similar two-light windows above, while the northern range has two-light windows throughout. A small timber canopy porch covers the door in the southern range. To the rear, a catslide roof covers the outshut, with no fenestration apart from a small window at the head of the stair. To the north, a flight of stone steps runs along the side of the building to give access to a door at first floor level. The north gable end has a shuttered opening above the entrance door giving access to the loft.

The ground floor has flagged stone floors. The southern room retains a late 19th century fire surround with a slightly earlier fire grate, and an early 19th century cupboard in the alcove to the right of the chimney breast. The northern room has a large 19th century range set at an angle into the chimney breast, which is shared with the bread oven in the scullery to its rear. The scullery also has a built-in copper for heating water. The northern ground floor room has a very large-section exposed chamfered ceiling beam, hand-hewn, with exposed ceiling joists, all whitewashed. The ceiling beams in the southern room are lighter in section but also chamfered and whitewashed. A 20th century partition has been inserted in the ground floor room to the north to create a bathroom. The straight elm stair has moulded treads and a closed string with plain stick balusters. The first floor retains a 19th century fireplace in the southern room, which also has wide elm floorboards. All doors throughout the interior are early 19th century plank and batten doors.

A small stone-built privy stands to the north of the cottage.

The building appears from its fabric to date from the mid to late 18th century and originated as two farm workers' cottages associated with the nearby Old Farm. The cottages appear very little altered since at least the mid-19th century; the plan form remains constant in the Ordnance Survey map series covering the period 1883 to 1923. They are believed to have been made into a single dwelling in 1915.