Govers Cottage

Govers Cottage is a house dating from the 17th century, specifically remodelled and extended in 1656, with further extensions in the 18th century and additions and alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is timber-framed, with parts infilled, rebuilt, and extended in brick, and features a thatched roof with hipped ends and a brick axial stack.

The house has a two-room plan with a lobby entrance in front of the central axial stack. The left bay may have originally been a small one-room house open to the roof, which had a fireplace in a stack on the right end, now the central axial stack. A floor was inserted in 1656, and the right bay was added at that time. In the 18th century, an outshut was built at the left end, and in the late 19th century, outshuts were added at the rear and the right end.

The exterior is one storey with an attic and features a two-window east front with two and three-light casements that have glazing bars, along with smaller attic casements set in eyebrow eaves. There is a small one-storey outbuilding projecting on the right, and on the left, the roof extends over a brick outshut at the end and around the rear corner. The late 19th-century brick outshut at the rear and a flint outshut on the north end both have pantile lean-to roofs.

Inside, the left room has a slightly cambered chamfered axial beam with cyma stops and exposed unchamfered joists. There is a large brick fireplace with an adzed and slightly cambered chamfered timber bressumer featuring run-out stops, and above the fireplace, a chalk tablet inscribed "R 1656 B" remains, although the oven has been removed. A cupboard made from boards from the lobby partition, with scratch mouldings, is located beside the fireplace. The date "1660" is painted on the side-girt at the rear of the left room. The right-hand room has rough unchamfered exposed joists, and winder stairs beside the stack have been turned around. The left chamber is ceiled but has an exposed frame in the end wall with queen-posts and straight wind-braces. A doorway at the head of the stairs has its head cut through the soffit of the tie-beam of the central truss, while the right-hand bay features a collar, clasped purlins, and a small saddle nailed at the apex.