The Cottage

The Cottage is a house dating from 1388, with alterations made in the late 15th century, 17th century, circa early 19th century, circa 1900, and later in the 20th century. It also known as The Priest's House and The Court House.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar and coursed dressed rubble with a stone tile roof. The roof features stone coped gable ends, and the finial coping to the north gable may be Medieval. The gable ends are ashlar with axial stacks bearing cornices.

The original plan comprises a rectangular south range with a first floor hall, divided into two rooms on the ground floor with a central entrance on the west front leading into the larger north room. The first floor contains a 3-bay hall open to roof, with the north bay partitioned off. In the 17th century, partitions were installed and a floor inserted to create an attic storey above. Around the early 19th century, a 2-room addition was built at the north end, possibly remodelling an earlier range. The south gable end was rebuilt around 1900.

The main range presents 2 storeys and an attic. The asymmetrical west front features stone mullion windows with 3-centre arch lights and hoodmoulds: a 2-light window on the ground floor and a 4-light window on the first floor to the right, with a single-light window to the left. A central doorway has a 3-centred arch and hoodmould, with a 20th-century door. A 17th-century dormer at the centre has a jettied gable and 3-light timber mullion window, with a single-light window in the north gable. The early 19th-century 2-storey range to the left has 12-pane sashes and a flush-panel door. The rebuilt south gable has 1- and 2-light stone mullion windows either side of a large projecting stack, which bears an inscription in memory of author L.T.C. Rolt. The rear elevation features similar stone mullion windows to the front, with a 2-storey projecting range on the right containing casements.

The ground floor rooms of the main range contain large chamfered cross-beams with hollow step stops. The south room features some exposed stop-chamfered joists and a Tudor arch chimneypiece with hollow chamfer and a late 18th- or early 19th-century hob grate. The north room's beam is cut through at the east end for a 20th-century staircase. The first floor has 17th-century timber-framed partitions with stop-chamfered beams and joists with scratch mouldings at the south end.

The attic is open to a Medieval 3-bay roof featuring two central upper-cruck arch-braced collar trusses with yokes and saddles at the apexes, supporting a diagonally-set ridgepiece. Two tiers of trenched purlins with curved wind-braces support common-rafter couples. The cruck blade feet are cut off at the inserted attic floor level, with the north truss now closed. The end trusses are slight principals set into the gable ends. Tree-ring dating has established that one of the arch-braced upper-cruck trusses and one first floor beam date to 1388, while the lower purlin on the east side of the south bay, dated to 1490-1500, may have been a screen head beam. A curved stone set into the south gable is believed to be the head of a former first floor doorway. The early 19th-century north range has a chamfered axial beam and a 19th-century Tudor arch kitchen fireplace chimneypiece.

The Cottage may be associated with Hailes Abbey, which was granted the living, glebe, and tithes of Stanley Pontlarge in 1387.