The Cottage

THE COTTAGE

A house dating to the late 17th century, remodelled in the late 18th century, further altered and extended in the early 19th century and late 20th century.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone and ironstone rubble with a rear wing of red brick, pitched roofs clad in old plain clay tiles. It is arranged in an L-shaped plan consisting of a front range and a long rear (north) wing with a row of attached outbuildings.

The south-facing front range has two storeys and an attic. The red brick gable stacks have octagonal clay pots, and the stone-coped gables terminate in moulded stone kneelers, the two on the east side providing a perch for gargoyles said to have come from Coventry Cathedral. The timber eaves cornice appears to be a re-used skirting board, possibly obscuring an earlier surviving cornice. There are two late 20th-century French windows on the ground floor with timber lintels, whilst the moulded stone hoods above indicate the position of the original three-light mullion windows. The first floor is lit by late 20th-century timber casement windows, positioned right up under the eaves. In the centre of the first floor is a date stone inscribed "TH 1699". The left (west) return has on three levels two-light mullion windows with stone hoodmoulds, all blocked by the later insertion of the chimney except the right light of the attic window. The right (east) return is lit at attic level by a two-light mullion window with late 20th-century leaded lights, under a hoodmould. Below is a small single-storey late 20th-century extension, constructed of coursed ironstone rubble with raised cement pointing, smooth concrete roof tiles and a stone gable stack. It is lit on both sides by a horizontal casement window, and the right return incorporates the two-light mullion window repositioned from the original gable end.

The rear (north) elevation has a dentilled brick cornice. The left-hand bay is lit on both floors by small square windows with stone sills and moulded stone lintels. In the angle between this range and the rear (north) wing is a two-storey, flat-roofed rendered projection. On the east side of this is a delicate early 19th-century timber lattice-work porch with a shallow pointed arch under a pagoda-style lead roof. The north side is lit on both floors by late 20th-century timber casements. The rear two-storey red brick wing has a dentilled brick cornice and brick ridge stacks at either end. The ground floor has three late 20th-century timber casements with cambered brick arches, and a late 20th-century door between the first and second window. The first floor is lit on the right-hand side by a 19th-century metal casement which has slender glazing bars and a twisted stay, under a timber lintel. Attached to the end wall of the rear wing is a row of single-storey outbuildings with a dentilled brick cornice. There are three timber batten doors with wide timber lintels, and a wide opening for wood storage between the second and third doors. The gable end has been rebuilt in modern red brick and a modern garage door inserted.

Interior

The interior has been modernised but retains some original structural timber elements and a number of fittings dating to the late 18th and early 19th-century remodelling phase. The principal east and west ground-floor rooms have a chamfered bridging beam and joists. The bridging beam in the west room has a lamb's tongue chamfer stop on the east end whilst the other end has been repaired, presumably due to being worn by proximity to the fire. The bridging beam in the east room has a simple chamfer stop at the west end, the other end being subsumed by the late 20th-century extension. The joists in the north-west corner of the room are laid at right angles to the others, indicating the repair when the original stair was repositioned. These two rooms have 19th-century moulded door surrounds, and the west room has an early 19th-century moulded timber fireplace, painted white, which has corner roundels and a cast-iron insert with a decorative arched opening and grate. The first-floor east and west rooms also have a chamfered bridging beam. The east room has a late 18th-century door surround and six-panelled door with an HL hinge. The west room has a delicate timber fireplace surround, painted white, with a dentilled soffit and a swan's-nest hob grate. The attic of the 17th-century range has exposed purlins but otherwise the roof structure has been plastered over.

Notable features in the rear wing include the brick barrel-vaulted cellar, the hit-and-miss window in the larder, and the brick bread oven with chamfered bressumer which is located in the party wall between the "polite" rear wing and outbuildings. The southern-most bedroom on the first floor has an early 19th-century fireplace with a simple moulded timber surround, painted white, and a hob grate.

Subsidiary Features

A red brick wall with saddle-back coping, probably dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries, encloses the garden on the south and west sides. On the south side is a delicate iron entrance gate, painted white, which has verticals surmounted with a leaf motif, and urn finials on the outer posts. The gate piers are square on plan and have raised flat-topped stone caps. Further to the west, a section of the south wall has been replaced with iron railings of the same design, flanked by brick buttresses of a later date.