Hances Cottage

Hance's Cottage, Snells Lane

Hance's Cottage is a timber-framed house dating to the 16th century, substantially modified over subsequent centuries. The original frame was encased in brick, possibly during the 18th century. The building underwent further changes in the 20th century, including the installation of timber casements, addition of a dining room extension in the mid-20th century, and various modernisations.

The cottage is constructed of timber-frame with red brick in Flemish bond and flint. It has a pitched tiled roof. The building follows a rectangular plan oriented north-west to south-east, with entrance to the north facing Snells Lane. It comprises two storeys with dormers to the upper floor, plus a single-storey dining room addition to the east and a rear verandah to the south. Internally, the house is one room wide and five bays deep.

The north-facing entrance elevation shows two storeys of painted white brick with uneven bays. A central entrance with a gabled half dormer to its east and a full dormer to the west are the main features. The gable of the full dormer is decorated with a painted timber frame effect. A further ancillary door lies to the west. Both entrances feature solid planked doors and shallow arched heads, as do the ground floor windows. All windows are timber-framed with either timber casements or leaded lights, though none of antiquity. An external brick chimney stack to the east is a later addition; the original, broadly central stack is built of narrow red brick with a V-shaped nib to the rear. The single-storey dining room adjoins to the east, also in painted brick with a pitched tiled roof.

The south-facing garden elevation is dominated by a large expanse of tiled roof which extends beyond the building line to create an off-centre verandah supported on wooden posts. This elevation contains fewer windows, all 20th-century insertions. A tiny gabled roof dormer lights the staircase. The elevation is largely in unpainted red brick except for a patch of flint walling to the west. A further 20th-century chimney has been added to the east to serve the dining room fireplace. The single-storey dining room extension to the east is also in unpainted brick.

The west gable end shows unpainted brickwork with evidence of extensive patching and repair. The east gable end is largely white painted brickwork with the ends of the purlins visible in the gable.

The interior retains a substantially and remarkably complete timber-frame with large panels. The distinctive tie-beams display a pronounced curve, each more than half a metre in width, dividing the house into five bays. A central entrance hall is flanked by a kitchen with dining room beyond to the south-east, and a living room with bathroom and office area beyond to the north-west.

The living room features a large inglenook fireplace to the south-east with a massive chamfered bressumer beam. There is also a chamfered spine beam with distinctive bow-tie stops. Further chamfered spine beams to the south-east display different widths of chamfer and some simple run-out stops. The south-east wall of the dining room has been opened to allow access to the dining room extension, exposing the frame of the former end wall of the cottage and revealing a rare survival of a timber mullioned window with diamond-shaped mullions. A 20th-century dogleg staircase opposite the front door sits against the rear south-west wall. Bedrooms, a further bathroom, and landing occupy the upper floor, with a separate first-floor mezzanine to the north-west end accessed by a 20th-century ladder staircase from the extreme north-west room. Curved wind braces appear on the first floor.

Architectural evidence indicates the cottage was built in the 16th century, though no documentary evidence survives. It was subsequently encased in brick, possibly during the 18th century. The cottage is believed to have been associated at some stage with Snell's Farmhouse, an 18th-century farmhouse to the south-east, and also had associations with Beel House to its immediate north-west, serving as an ancillary service building. Beel House is a small county house of 17th-century origins that was considerably enlarged in the early 19th century. In the mid-20th century, immediately prior to 1954 and a change of ownership, Hance's Cottage was occupied by the gardener and chauffeur for Beel House, at which time the ground floor was divided into two and the first floor was used as a gardener's bothy or store.

Since 1954 it has been a private house. The dining room, now the south-easternmost part of the house, is understood to have been created post-1954 by rebuilding a former shed and incorporating it into the accommodation. Some 20th-century alterations have been made, including window replacement and limited modernisation, though some historic features have been restored, such as the opening up of the inglenook fireplace and exposure of the timber-frame in the former south-east wall, now an internal partition in the dining room.