Court Cottage

Court Cottage is a house, originally a farmhouse, dating to 1651, although it may have earlier origins. It was rearranged internally in the late 18th century and modernised in the 20th century. The house is constructed of coursed granite ashlar, with some areas patched using granite rubble. It has granite stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brickwork and a thatched roof.

The building was originally a two-room plan house facing south, built down a hillslope. The smaller room at the left (west) end is terraced into the hillside and contains an axial stack backing onto an entrance hall. The larger room to the right has an end kitchen stack, and it may have originally been two rooms. A late 19th century staircase is located to the rear of the entrance lobby, along with a narrow room behind the kitchen. The structure is two storeys high, with attic space in the roof.

The exterior has an irregular three-window front. The ground floor windows are original and have hollow-chamfered mullions, bead-moulded reveals, and hoodmoulds. There are four-light windows with central king mullions either side of the door, and a two-light window (possibly a copy) at the right end. The left-hand window is missing its lesser mullions. The hoodmoulds are carved with the initials G and D and contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. The first-floor windows have been replaced with 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars. Two low dormers were inserted into the attic space in the 20th century. The front doorway has a 20th-century plank door with a contemporary half-hipped thatched hood. Above the window to the right is a datestone inscribed with the initials GD and the date 1651. The roof is hipped to the left and gable-ended to the right.

Most of the interior carpentry and joinery detail is from the late 18th and 20th centuries, but the fireplaces are original. The room on the left has a granite surround with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The fireplace in the right room is larger and includes two side ovens. The original roof structure consists of a series of A-frame trusses with pegged and spiked lap-jointed collars and contains carpenters’ assembly marks.

Court Cottage is part of a group of varied listed buildings that make up the hamlet of Thorn.