3 Cottages on North West Corner of Lane to Court Barton

These are three cottages situated on the north-west corner of the lane leading to Court Barton. The house likely dates from the mid-17th century or earlier, with alterations made in the 20th century. The cottages are constructed of whitewashed rendered cob and stone rubble, with slate and asbestos slate roofs, and gabled ends. Notable features include an axial brick stack with a rendered shaft and a rounded projecting brick stack with a rendered shaft at the right end.

The original layout was a single-depth, three-room plan. A former two-storey porch was positioned to the left of centre, originally providing an entrance into a lobby created by the back-to-back stacks of the two left-hand rooms. A newel staircase is located in the second cottage, adjacent to a stack. Later lean-to additions extend to the rear of the first two cottages, with a two-storey addition to the rear of the third cottage, which was extended in 1987 to project beyond the left end of the original range. The house’s evolution is complex; the two left-hand rooms are clearly of 17th-century origin, while the right-hand end (the first cottage) may represent a later addition or rebuilding. The division into three cottages created two cottages with a single room plan, accompanied by rear service rooms. The former porch now forms part of the left-hand cottage.

The front elevation has an asymmetrical three-window arrangement. The former porch has a blocked front door replaced by a 2-light timber casement window with glazing bars. Each cottage has a 20th-century front door, with the third cottage featuring a 20th-century glazed porch. A variety of 20th-century casement windows are visible.

Internally, the first cottage has been modernized. The second and third cottages have closely-spaced ceiling joists of substantial timber, possibly dating to the 18th century. The second cottage has a 20th-century fireplace which allegedly conceals a larger, original fireplace with a granite lintel, and a newel stone staircase with timber treads and risers. The third cottage retains an open fireplace with granite jambs, a scroll-stopped timber lintel, and a 19th-century bread oven.

The apex of the roof of the second cottage was inspected and found to be of side-pegged jointed cruck construction, with the feet of the cruck truss partly dressed off and a diagonally-set ridge. The third cottage is said to have a similar truss. The roof timbers of the first cottage appear to be later, with straight principal rafters.