24, 25, 26, 27, 28 AND 29, DOULTING VILLAGE

Row of former estate cottages erected in 1882 and extended in the early 1900s by G J Skipper for Sir Richard Paget of Cranmore Hall. The cottages are mainly of one and a half storeys, built in Tudor style using Doulting ashlar with freestone dressings. The slate roofs feature large axial stacks with grouped polygonal shafts and moulded caps. The row fronts onto the roadside, with the main elevation following the angle of the road. The cottages were built in two phases: Nos. 24-27 in 1882; Nos. 28-29 in 1901 or 1902.

The front elevation displays single, two-, three- and four-light stone mullioned windows with metal casements, some replaced in timber, all with hood-moulds and label-stops. From east to west: No. 24 rises to two storeys with an attic and has an entrance within a narrow two-storey half-bay at the east end. Nos. 25 and 26 are one and a half storeys with gabled half-dormers and a projecting central gabled bay carrying a stone plaque carved with '1882' and 'RHP' (the initials of Sir Richard Paget). No. 27 is one and a half storeys with a gabled half-dormer, a four-light window to the left of the entrance and a single window to the right. No. 28 rises to two storeys with an attic and has a shallow canted oriel to the first floor with five lights, below which sits a stone plaque bearing the Paget family coat of arms. No. 29 has two-light windows to the ground and attic floors on the roadside elevation, its principal façade being the west gable wall. A continuous drip mould runs above the ground floor windows to Nos. 28-29. The six door openings, including one to the right return, have moulded surrounds with four-centred arch heads and plank doors.

The rear elevation is plainer. Nos. 24-27 are similar, each with a two-light attic window in a half-dormer. A number of stone mullions have been removed and some roof-lights introduced. Nos. 28-29 have plain gable end stacks and two-light windows to the ground and first floors, with a small two-light window to the attic of No. 28.

To the rear of the cottages is a row of single-storey outbuildings, believed to have been wash-houses, built of rubble stone with slate roofs. Each has a single doorway. These outbuildings also date to two phases, with the right-hand section added when Nos. 28-29 were constructed in the early 1900s.

Nos. 24-29 forms part of a larger group of estate cottages built in the village in the late 19th century for Sir Richard Paget of Cranmore Hall. The architect was George John Skipper (1856-1948) of Norwich, and his illustration of the cottages was published in The Builder in 1887.