The Cave

The Cave

This is a terraced house comprising two one-and-a-half storey units built at different levels due to the sloping site, with the right-hand unit standing approximately half a storey higher than the left.

The right-hand unit, the earlier of the two, has an irregular timber-framed front elevation with painted brick infill, and rubble stone gable and rear walls. The left unit is constructed throughout in whitewashed rubble stone. Both units have slate roofs; that on the right-hand unit is laid in diminishing courses. The two units have opposing gable stone chimney stacks.

The right cottage features a chimney on its right side and a central cat-slide dormer window on both front and rear elevations. At the front, the dormer sits directly above a ground floor living room window, with a modern doorway to the right-hand side, apparently reinstating an original entrance that had been blocked but was reopened in the 1980s. A covered passage connects the gable end to a modern extension. At the rear is a modern slate awning with timber posts over the patio door and window.

The left unit has its entrance in a gabled porch to the right, timber-framed with a slate roof. A casement window is positioned to the left, with a low window immediately below the eaves above. The blind left side gable has two large reinforcing buttresses added in 1985, with slate and timber storage sheds positioned between and beside them. The rear outshut appears to be original, though its small gabled extension is modern.

Throughout the building, windows are sympathetic modern small-paned timber casements, probably in original openings, and doors are similarly modern but in keeping with the vernacular character.

The two units have been internally combined into a single residence with an eccentric layout reflecting the level difference between them. The right cottage contains a living room at ground level with a bedroom above and the principal staircase, whilst the left has the kitchen at ground level and a bedroom above. Original timberwork is evident throughout.

The living room contains a gable end rubble stone fireplace with a very large timber bressummer. A narrow stairway with a panelled timber screen opposite the fireplace connects the living room to both bedrooms. The structural timber framing of the original gable wall of the upper unit is exposed above and below this stairway. A large spine beam crosses the ceiling, goes below this stair, and projects slightly into the wall of the left-side bedroom. Joists are exposed. A shorter flight of stairs against the rear wall gives access down from the living room into the kitchen in the lower unit.

The main stairway ends at an upstairs landing with a partition and entry into the bedroom over the living room. The chimney stack stonework is exposed in the upper gable behind a queen post truss with cambered tie-beam, and what are either curved principals or the top part of a cruck frame, concealed by masonry on the floor below. Timber purlins are exposed.

The kitchen at ground floor in the left unit contains a large fireplace with a rough bressummer against the lower gable wall. A substantial spine beam runs across with thinner joists. The rear outshut contains a shower room with stairs down to a small bath in a modern gabled extension.

The bedroom in the left cottage is now only accessible off the narrow stairway in the right cottage, making its original access unclear. It is only a few steps up from the living room in the right-hand unit. The fireplace against the gable wall is most likely a modern reconstruction. Timber purlins are exposed.