Magpie Cottage And Willow Cottage

Magpie Cottage and Willow Cottage are a pair of cottages, originally a single house, dating from the early 17th century. They were altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The houses are built of stone rubble with a gable roof now covered in asbestos tiles. Stone axial, gable-end, and lateral stacks, weathered and heightened in brick, rise from the roof.

The original long range comprises Willow Cottage (No.7) to the east and Magpie Cottage (No.5) to the west. Willow Cottage has a hall to the left (west) with a large fireplace in a stack backing onto a through-passage and a front stair tower; the lower eastern end was rebuilt in the 19th century as an outbuilding. Magpie Cottage is of a single-room plan with a large gable-end stack and was originally built as additional accommodation or a separate dwelling. Later additions include small outshuts at the upper west end of the building and garage doors at the lower east end.

The south-facing front has six windows arranged asymmetrically, with 2- and 3-light casements, some with glazing bars. A through-passage doorway is located to the right of centre, containing a plank door. A former stair tower sits to the left of centre. The rear (north) elevation has 2- and 3-light casements, some forming attic dormers. There are three doorways with plank and later glazed doors.

Inside Willow Cottage, the through-passage features deeply chamfered cross-beams with run-out stops. The hall has similar cross-beams and a large fireplace in the axial stack, featuring monolithic conglomerate jambs with hollow chamfers, one with a broach-and-bar stop and a later cambered, chamfered timber bressumer with straight-cut stops, a herringbone fire back, and remains of an oven. A later partition divides the hall, creating an "inner room” and removing the newel stair from the front stair tower. Attic chambers are ceiled and exhibit a raised cruck collar truss with trenched purlins and a diagonal ridgepiece. Magpie Cottage’s single room has a large gable-end fireplace with one monolithic stone jamb and a rebuilt rubble jamb. A large chamfered timber bressumer with a crude stop at the left end and truncated at the right end sits above the hearth, along with a remnant oven. A deeply chamfered cross-beam with hollow-step stops is supported by stop-chamfered bracket-pieces. A winder staircase is located at the rear (northwest) corner, with a simple stick-balustrade at the top and a moulded handrail. The chamber is ceiled, exposing a side-pegged, jointed cruck truss with trenched purlins.