Cotton's House

Details

SJ 6633-6733 and
SJ 6634-6734;
12/78 and 13/78

MARKET DRAYTON C.P.,
SHROPSHIRE STREET (south-east side),
No. 57 (Cotton's House)

(Formerly listed as Plas Gwyn)

2.10.75

GV

II*

House. Circa 1600, for the Cotton family, with late C18 or early C19
alterations. Timber-framed on dressed grey sandstone plinth, partly
cased in rendered brick (lined as ashlar), and refaced or rebuilt in red
brick to the rear. Plain tile roofs. Framing: ground-floor close studding
(obscured) with cusped (or serrated) tension braces and close-studding
with middle rail to first floor. Jettied attic with moulded brackets,
close studding to side and single tier of square panels to front with
opposed square corner struts (each cut from a single piece of timber).
Gable to front has three tiers of small square panels with opposed curved
corner struts, and curved V-struts in apex. Baffle-entry E-plan. Three
framed bays (narrow centre bay around stack) at right angles to road with
three gabled wings to north-east (left-hand return front). Two storeys and attic
over basement. Chamfered plinth. Central brick ridge stack with pairs
of pointed-arched recesses in each face. Two-window front; c.1800 tripartite
sashes (minus glazing bars). Small attic glazing bar sashes in gable
to right. Basement opening to left. Right-hand return (entrance) front:
central c.1800 first-floor horizontal-sliding glazing bar sash and C20
three-light wooden casement to right. Ground-floor C20 three-light casement
to right. Central C19 gabled porch; door has six raised and fielded panels
(top 2 panels glazed) with rectangular overlight and moulded architrave.
Integral brick end stack to left-hand return front. Rear: refaced or
rebuilt in brick. Toothed-brick eaves cornice and verge. Gabled eaves
dormer to right with 3-light wooden casement. Segmental-headed 2-light
wooden attic casement in gable to left. First-floor segmental-headed
glazing bar sashes (16-pane to left), ground-floor segmental-headed horizontal-
sliding glazing bar sash to left and small-paned 2-light casement to right.
Half-glazed door between, off-centre to right, with segmental head and bracketed
gabled porch. Rendered (lined as ashlar) early C19 lean-to addition
to right with first-floor 16-pane glazing bar sash and ground floor 2-
light segmental-headed wooden casement.

INTERIOR: c.1680 oak staircase
(probably replacing earlier staircase in former stair projection at rear),
rising two floors with winders; closed string, barleysugar balusters, moulded
handrail and square newel posts with moulded caps. Principal ground-
and first-floor rooms have pairs of deep-chamfered spine beams with ogee
stops. Right-hand ground-floor front room: C17 grey sandstone ashlar
fireplace with chamfered reveals and carved lintel. Right-hand ground-
floor rear room (kitchen): large open fireplace with chamfered dressed
red sandstone reveals and chamfered wooden lintel. C17 six-panelled
door to rear. Left-hand ground-floor front room: pair of chamfered
ceiling beams. Late C17 door with two large panels and L-hinges. Left-
hand ground-floor front room: small fireplace. Early C19 back staircase
(probably replacing former principal early C17 staircase) with stick balusters.
Cellar: pairs of large chamfered beams. Circa 1680 two-panelled doors
to principal bedrooms off first-floor landing, probably fitted at the
same date as the staircase. Right-hand front bedroom: painted sandstone
ashlar fireplace with chamfered reveals and deep lintel with moulded cornice.
Moulded cornice to room. Right-hand rear bedroom: painted sandstone
ashlar fireplace with chamfered reveals. Left-hand rear bedroom: chamfered
beams. Pair of boarded cupboard doors with L-hinges (C20). Attic:
tie-beam and collar trusses. Single purlins with straight wind braces.
Front attic room has dressed red sandstone fireplace with chamfered corbels
supporting lintel; chamfered wooden surround of blocked former doorway
to right (the doorway is now further to the right, probably moved when
the late C17 staircase was inserted). Various C17 boarded and panelled
doors and old oak floor boards throughout. Much timber framing visible
internally. The first floor still appears to be jettied beneath the
casing (see ends of moulded bressumer in wall between porch and staircase hall).
Cusped corner brace between staircase hall and kitchen. The front wall
behind the later porch has been removed but the width of the former doorway
can still be discerned (see mortices on underside of first-floor wall plate).
Philip Cotton was granted the land on which the present house stands, formerly
owned by Combermere Abbey, Cheshire),in 1539. By 1672 a Philip Cotton
is recorded as owning a house in Market Drayton with 5 hearths, probably
the present building. The inventory made after his death in 1681 still
survives [information from the present owner (1986)]. Due to its very
narrow site the house stands at right-angles to the road, the entrance
front being to the right. It is a typical baffle-entry plan which has
been turned through ninety degrees. It has been suggested that the top
floor is a later (perhaps mid-C17)addition to an earlier (i.e. c.1600)
house, hence the shallow jetty and different framing type.

Listing NGR: SJ6739333996

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

260382

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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