The Curtain

A group of three cottages, now converted into two houses, likely dating from the 14th century, with significant alterations in later periods. The construction is of rubble sandstone, topped with a 20th-century pantile roof with stone slates at the eaves. The building has two storeys and six first-floor windows facing south. Quoins are visible. The ground floor features a scar marking a blocked fire window, part of a blocked round-arched doorway, a 20th-century pent-roofed porch with a casement window, and three 20th-century casement windows. The first floor shows a blocked chamfered fire window surround and five 20th-century casement windows. Coping is present on the right side. Two brick ridge stacks are visible. The rear of the building displays a portion of a 13th-century-style window with two pointed arches, along with traces of a similar window. On the right return, two pointed-arched windows are blocked, and a gable features reversed crowstepping. The building’s name, “The Curtain,” is believed to derive from the Latin word “cortem,” meaning a yard or enclosure, which corresponds to the English legal term “curtilage.” Another interpretation connects it to the French word “cortaine,” suggesting a monastic enclosure. It has been proposed that The Curtain and the adjacent Angel Inn may have once formed a small monastic house, evidenced by architectural fragments discovered during past alterations, with The Curtain potentially serving as the chapel, featuring a south-facing door and an east-facing window. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, The Curtain was used as a mail house when the Angel Inn acted as a significant coaching inn and mailing station, and was subsequently converted into three cottages after the transfer of mail services to the railways.