Carpenters Vallens Cottage

Carpenters and Vallens Cottages are two adjoining houses with early 16th-century origins, remodelled in the late 16th and 17th centuries. Vallens Cottage, the lower end, has 20th-century alterations. The houses are constructed of rendered cob and stone rubble, with a slate roof gabled at each end. They have end stacks and an axial stack with a granite shaft.

The original plan consisted of a small three-room layout and a through passage. Vallens Cottage, on the right, was originally an open hall, and the room above the inner room jetties into the hall. A newel stair is located adjacent to the hall stack, and a second stair rises from the hall against the rear wall of the inner room. A rear left lean-to is likely an 18th or 19th-century addition, and a flat-roofed two-storey addition was built in the 20th century to the rear of Vallens Cottage. The lower end was not inspected during the 1987 survey.

The front elevation is asymmetrical, with two doorways providing access to Carpenters Cottage through an open cross passage. Windows are largely 19th and 20th-century timber casements.

Inside, the granite ashlar backing of the hall stack is visible in the cross passage, along with the remains of a plank and muntin screen. The rear doorway to the passage features two curved timber blades forming a pointed arched doorframe. Carpenters Cottage’s hall has an open fireplace with a hollow-chamfered jamb and lintel; the other jamb incorporates a reused farm roller. A deep jetty with chamfered joists oversails a plank and muntin screen with chamfered muntins incorporating diagonal stops. A chamfered doorframe with a probable cut-back shouldered head leads to the inner room, and a separate doorframe provides access to the stair. The hall crossbeam is also chamfered with step stops. The fireplace in the inner room is blocked.

The roof was not inspected, but is said to contain two blackened trusses, one at each end of the hall, with missing ridge and rafters. The upper end truss was a partition truss with blackening on the inner room side. This is an unusually small medieval house, and has group value with the nearby Lane End and Leigh Cottage.