Wisedom Cottages

Wisedom Cottages

Two cottages, formerly a farmhouse. The building is late medieval in origin with a 17th-century wing addition to the rear and later outshots, plus a 20th-century extension to the left end. The structure comprises plastered stone rubble, probably incorporating cob, with stone rubble chimney stacks topped with 20th-century brick. One stack sits over an original granite ashlar chimney shaft. The roof is thatched.

The original plan was a 4-room and through-passage house. The left cottage now occupies the former inner room with a probable stair projection and the attached 17th-century rear wing, plus an early 20th-century extension comprising a stairway and parlour at the left end of the main range. The right cottage occupies the former hall with rear lateral stack, the former passage, and the lower or service end with a probably secondary rear lateral stack. The left cottage has a gable-end stack in the 20th-century extension and a large axial stack in the inner room (formerly positioned on the gable end). The right cottage retains its rear lateral stack, and there is a small, low single-storey outshot against the rear of the right cottage.

The house originally functioned as a late medieval open hall house, likely heated by an open hearth fire. Fireplaces were subsequently inserted and the house was progressively floored over between the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries. The original wide through passage now houses inserted stairs, and its rear door remains visible though blocked. The building is now 2 storeys.

The front elevation is irregular with 4 windows of 20th-century casements with glazing bars; those at first floor level in the left cottage are half dormers. The front doorway to the left cottage lies within the 20th-century extension and is accessed through a contemporary porch. The doorway to the right cottage opens onto the through passage. The roof is gable-ended to the left and half-hipped to the right. There is a probable stair projection to the rear of the former inner room. The two-storey 17th-century wing has lost the top of its chimney stack, though the body of the stack projects from the face of the wall. A low projection to the left of the stack, of uncertain function, is now occupied by a window and may originally have been taller.

The interior contains exposed 16th and 17th-century carpentry. The bridging beam to the hall features a wide chamfer and double bar with stepped stop. The doorway from the passage to the hall has a reused timber lintel that appears to be the head of a former two-light timber window. The service end contains a rough beam with wide chamfer and simple run-out stops. Attached to the centre of the passage wall is a vertical timber with a curving head and similar wide chamfer decoration, possibly one side of a former doorway.

The rear wing has a beam with wide chamfer and stepped stop. Within the wing an original fireplace is exposed with a chamfered timber lintel, though the stops are obscured. The hearth is positioned to the far left, with a blocked opening to the right of it, possibly a former creamer or fuel store. All other fireplaces now have 20th-century hearths.

On the first floor, the feet of trusses are exposed within the right cottage over the former service end, passage, and hall, displaying side-pegged jointed crucks. The attic roof is smoke-blackened and contains two rows of threaded purlins, with the lower ones exposed in the bedrooms. The collars are slightly cambered. The truss over the wall of the passage and service end has a replacement collar bolted to it. The truss forming the hill-height partition over the wall between the hall and inner room has a vertical timber between the collar and ceiling with a hole-slot near the present ceiling, of uncertain purpose. Access to the roof over the inner room in the left cottage is very limited, but the historic roof appears to extend the full length of the 3-room plan house, though smoke blackening here is very light. The roof over the wing was not inspected.

The building was divided into a pair of cottages probably in the late 1920s.