Water Cottages

Water Cottages are a pair of cottages that were originally one house, likely dating from the 16th century, with significant alterations possibly made in the 18th century. The building features granite rubble walls and rear stacks with a drip-course, topped by a thatched roof with gable ends.

The layout is probably a three-room plan with a through or cross passage, and there are rear lateral stacks serving the hall and lower end. A wing at the front of the higher end has been demolished. The current room at the upper end of the hall may have been the original inner room, separated from the hall by a plastered partition. The newel staircase rises from inside the inner room next to the hall stack, while the partition at the lower end of the hall is a solid wall. The cottages were likely divided in the 18th century.

The building has two storeys and an asymmetrical five-window front, featuring early 20th-century two-light wood casements with small panes, and a three-light window at the center of the first floor. There are two doorways: one at the center with an early 20th-century plank door leading to the original passage, and another on the right, a 20th-century stable type door leading into the lower room. The front wall has two large later granite rubble raking buttresses, and the left side shows the truncated gable end of the demolished wing, revealing a vestigial roof truss with straight principal rafters and threaded purlins, along with evidence of a morticed collar.

Inside, the lower room features a fireplace with a very rough timber lintel and a similar cross beam. The hall has a heavy central cross beam with a chamfer and bar stop at one end. Above the higher partition wall is a chamfered cross beam with a bar and ogee stop, with the partition inserted below it. A beam with a chamfer and ogee stop is located above the door to the passage. The inner room contains a stone newel staircase, and upstairs, a side-pegged jointed cruck is visible at the higher end. Although part of the house has been demolished and some structural history is not visible, it is clear that the building has undergone a complex development.