Lane's Cottage

Lane's Cottage

This timber-framed cottage, set on a high rubble-stone plinth, comprises a main range of one-and-a-half storeys with a narrower single-storey lateral extension, forming an L-shaped footprint. The main range has painted brick infill and is roofed in artificial Cotswold stone tiles laid in diminishing courses.

The principal elevation is of two bays, with the entrance doorway in the left bay and a window to the right. Above these are wide gabled dormers featuring diagonal framing struts, decorative bargeboards and finials at the apexes. The entrance door is a plank and batten door with reeded and beaded planks; decorative wrought-iron strap hinges of late 19th or early 20th-century date are applied for decoration only, while functioning 20th-century strap hinges are mounted on the interior face. A tall central ridge stack in red brick rises in two stages, with a stone drip mould and moulded brick cap.

The timber framing consists of square members of slender scantling with long diagonal passing braces. Part of the plinth to the right-hand bay has been rebuilt. The rear elevation has additional timbers applied to the exterior of the framing members to strengthen the structure, tied back with iron bolts and other fixings. The left-hand window sits above a rebuilt section of plinth with straight joints indicating it was formerly a doorway. The gable ends each have a window in the attic; the northern gable end also has a ground-floor window of two lights divided by a timber mullion. The southern end has a smaller window above the irregular roof of the lean-to kitchen, with the gable end clad in waney-edged weatherboarding. Windows throughout are a variety of mid-20th-century metal casements, some with top-hung opening panes.

The interior has a two-room plan with a large stone-built central stack. The ground-floor rooms feature very large chamfered lateral timber ceiling beams and more slender timber joists with chamfers and run-out stops; joists in one corner of one room have been replaced in recent years. The stone plinth extends into the interior with largely exposed stonework. The southern room has a wide fireplace built in stone with monolithic uprights, one side partially rebuilt, and a very large timber bressumer spanning the opening. Between the two rooms is a plank and batten door of late 18th or early 19th-century date with wrought-iron strap hinges and moulded edges to the planks. The northern room, with a 20th-century red tile floor, contains a later straight timber stair of perhaps late 19th-century date, which rises at the rear of the chimney breast and splits to both sides from a half-landing just below the height of the ground-floor ceiling.

The attic is divided into three bedrooms; the two main bays are separated by the large central stack. Floors are covered in wide timber boards with some areas of patching and replacement. The roof is ceiled above the level of the purlins and shows a single central truss to one side of the stack, comprising a tie-beam with a low-arched cut-out section, principal rafters and single purlins. The scantling of the tie-beam and associated timbers is considerably larger than that of the external framing.