33, Ford Street

This is a detached cottage, likely dating to the early 17th century or possibly earlier. It was originally part of a larger house, of which most of the rest has now been demolished. The cottage is constructed of limewashed granite rubble, likely with some cob under the eaves, and has brick patching on the north side where an oven was located. The roof is covered with asbestos slate and has gabled ends. There are granite chimney shafts on the front.

The cottage appears to be two rooms surviving from a probable three-room plan house that originally extended to the right (west) or the hall and inner room of a house that extended to the left (east). Alternatively, it may have been a small, self-contained 17th-century cottage, perhaps originally part of a row, with the other properties demolished. The left-hand room now has direct access to the right-hand room through an internal stack on the front. To the left of the stack is a projecting rounded oven on the corner. What may have originally been a turret containing a newel staircase rose above the oven, but this is now flush with the front wall and has been patched in brick. A through-passage has been inserted through the right-hand (west) room, and the west side of this room has been converted into a pair of small store rooms accessed from the passage. The cottage has two storeys.

The north front has a circa late 19th-century plank door to the right of centre and a passage doorway to its right. Above the passage doorway is a circa early 17th-century two-light window with a heavy, chamfered frame and later casements. The rounded oven projection is at the far left corner, with limewashed brick patching and a single-light star window above. All openings have timber lintels. Between the doorway and the oven is a lateral stack flush with the front, with a tall granite shaft and granite thatch weathering at the base, topped with red brick. The rear (south) elevation has three late 20th-century casement windows on the ground floor, two late 20th-century casements on the first floor, and a passage entrance on the left.

Inside, the left-hand room has chamfered cross beams with run-out stops and square section joists. There is a square section cross beam over the left-hand end of the room. The fireplace within the front lateral stack has granite jambs, a timber lintel with run-out stops, and an oven with a dressed granite surround and lining. A large stone newel staircase projects into the room and winds around the side of the stack. A chamfered, unstopped longitudinal ceiling beam is in the passage and the store room in the former right-hand (west) room. The roof has pegged timbers, including one blade of a truss and three reset collars, one smoke-blackened, with the collars lapped to the face of the principals. These reset timbers may not belong to the original house.

The cottage contains a number of interesting features and is undoubtedly not later than the 17th century. As an early building in the backlands, it is of interest in understanding the development of the town.