Bottom Pond Cottages

The Bottom Pond Cottages are a pair of estate farm workers’ cottages built around 1858, likely for the Earl of Northesk’s estate at Longwood House. They are constructed primarily of red brick, with a diaper pattern to the front and a Flemish garden-wall bond to the rear. Stone dressings and slate roofing complete the exterior.

The cottages have a symmetrical T-shaped plan. The two-storey, gabled main range fronts the road, with a two-storey rear range and a single-storey outshut at the rear. Each cottage is L-shaped internally. A large central ridge stack rises above the main range, incorporating four shafts combined into a single decorative head.

The south-west elevation of the main range has diaper-work brick decoration. The brick plinth incorporates flint panels, and brick corner pilasters with chamfered corners define the ends of the elevation. The ground floor features a pair of single-storey bay windows with triple six-light timber casements and sloping roofs formed of a single slate slab. Above the bay windows are multi-pane cast-iron casements. A date stone bearing the date 1858 is set between the windows, featuring a cast-iron plaque displaying a coat-of-arms depicting an eagle with an earl’s coronet, and the initials ‘E’ and ‘N’ in the corner. The gable ends of the front range also feature diaper-work, flanking cast-iron casements with rubbed brick heads on each floor. The ground-floor window to the second cottage has been replaced with timber casements. The second cottage retains its decorative bargeboard, while that of the first has been replaced.

The rear range has three bays with opposed entrances set within two-storey gabled bays. The bays have cast-iron casements on the first floor and decorative bargeboards. A modern weatherboard porch has been added to the second cottage. The central bay has cast-iron double casements on each floor, although the ground floor of the second cottage has a modern timber replacement. The single-storey outshut has a hipped roof incorporating entrances to both cottages at the rear.

Internally, both cottages have been modernised. No. 2 was not inspected, but No. 1 retains original moulded door surrounds, brick hearths in the sitting room and outshut, and an arched cast-iron register grate in one of the bedrooms.