1-2 Castle Cottages

A pair of two-storey houses constructed of roughcast render over cob, with coursed Hamstone rubble blocks to the ground floor of the front east elevation and the end walls. The hipped roof is clad in double Roman tiles, formerly thatched, and has a central ridge stack and end chimneys all of brick.

The building originally formed a mirrored pair of three-room houses, each accessed from a shared central lobby entry on the east road-facing elevation. When later converted to four dwellings, a fireplace was inserted in the end wall of each house and a doorway was also added there. The front presents a near-symmetrical facade of four bays with a wide central entrance approached by two stone steps. The doorframe has heavy double ovolo mouldings, now eroded, and an early boarded and studded door with cover stops.

Windows are timber casements with either ovolo-moulded or flat-chamfered mullions. All are three lights except the ground-floor windows to bays two and three, which have four lights. The third bay of the first floor contains an oriel window. Each end wall has a 19th-century doorway with a plank and batten door under a timber lintel but no window openings. The rear west elevation has pairs of two-light timber casements to the ground and first floors of each house; the first-floor openings appear to have been reduced in width and partially blocked.

Interior features include a shared lobby entrance with the axial stack, from which doorways lead left and right into each house. The two central stacks, built back-to-back in a single build, are timber-framed with rod and daub construction, supported on a mantel beam carried on chamfered timber posts. The stacks taper as they rise and their internal surfaces are plastered for fire protection; above roof level they have been rebuilt in brick. The central fireplace in No.1 has been opened to a large inglenook, while that in No.2 contains a range. Fireplaces in the end walls of each house are later additions with timber bressumers, brick jambs, and smaller inserted hearths.

A winder stair stands to the side of the central stack in each house. The party wall between the two properties is cob except between the two sets of stairs, which is timber-framed and appears to be later infill. During refurbishment, evidence was found of two further staircases (now removed) that were likely added when the building was divided into four dwellings, positioned in the rear corners of both houses.

17th-century carpentry is well preserved throughout. Ceiling beams to both ground and first floors are deeply chamfered with cyma stops. The post and panel partition between the two main ground-floor rooms of No.1 has chamfered posts with step and run-out stops at the foot, tenoned and pegged to the head beam. The partition between the central and rear rooms lacks tenoned posts, suggesting it has been resited. The ground-floor partition in No.2 has bead mouldings to both the edges and centre of the posts. The first floor is divided largely by 19th-century timber partitions; most internal doors are also 19th-century.

The roof comprises five principal rafters with cambered collars and tie-beams that are chamfered with cyma stops at each end. The ridge piece is threaded with pairs of butt purlins. Two of the lower purlins on the west-facing side retain evidence of previously existing windows, probably eyebrow dormers. The roof space is boarded throughout with wide boards and a doorway has been created to the side of the stack; pintles for the door remain.

To the rear of No.1 is a well with a cast-iron water pump. At the north-east corner of the building is a short section of attached low Hamstone walling.