Church Cottage

Reasons for Designation

Church Cottage, a late C17 or early C18 timber-framed cottage was recommended for designation at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: the cottage retains a significant amount of original fabric and its lobby-entry plan form * Alteration: late C18 or early C19 alterations are of interest as they form part of the building's history

Details

CORHAMPTON AND MEONSTOKE

1888/0/10027 CHURCH LANE 11-MAR-11 CHURCH COTTAGE

II A late C17 or early C18 two-bay cottage, modified in the late C18 or early C19, added to in the 1930s and again in 2007 to 2008.

MATERIALS: Timber-framed with brick facing and a tile roof. Flint and brick extensions at either end of cottage.

EXTERIOR: The front elevation has late C18/early C19 brick facing on the central (original) part of the cottage with cambered ground floor door and window arches. The front door, offset to the right, appears to be C19 but the windows, six-pane casements on the ground floor and four-pane on the first floor, are C20 replacements. The rear of the cottage was modified in 2009 and has a full length glazed door and new brickwork around the replacement windows. This rear wall extends out beyond the original timber-framed rear of the building.

At the north-east end of the cottage the roof is hipped and continues as a catslide roof incorporating three roof lights over the flint and brick outshot, and at the rear there is a dormer window. At the south-west end of the building the roof is lower and half-hipped over the 2009 extension. Both chimneys, one between the north-east extension and the main body of the cottage and the other within the cottage passing through the ridge, have been rebuilt. The former was an end stack to the original cottage and the latter a C17 central stack between the two principal rooms of the cottage.

INTERIOR: The original plan comprised a two-bay lobby entrance plan cottage. The original entrance has been blocked up and the new offset front entrance created. The sill plate is not visible. Framing to the front wall is absent apart from a small section of the mid rail in the left-hand room, the posts which form the front entrance to the lobby and the wall plate at first-floor level. Presumably much of the frame of this front elevation was removed when it was refaced in brick. The timber-frame of the rear wall of the cottage is virtually intact, including mid rail and wall plate. The studding on the ground floor here is absent, although studding with cross braces on the first floor is complete. The large frame studding of the left end wall is also intact, and is topped by a queen-post roof truss. The right end wall appears to have been finished in brick. The frame of the doorways to the two rooms off the lobby are present. There is a deeply chamfered spine beam in the left-hand room and a cross beam at the dividing wall between the two ground-floor rooms. Most joists in the two original ground-floor rooms are early. The late C17 or early C18 inglenook fireplace in the left-hand room has been rebuilt using early bricks and incorporating a new bressumer. The other side of the fire breast, in the right-hand room, has been blocked up, but there is a modified late C18/early C19 fireplace on the opposite wall in this room. The newly built stairs are located to the rear of the chimney stack and are built into the rear frame of the cottage adjacent to an original jowl post. The roof is of queen-post construction with studding below forming the partition wall between the two original first-floor rooms. The tie beams are original as are the clasped purlins; most of the rafters appear to be original and there is a wind brace in the upper left-hand room.

Both the flint and brick outshot on the north-east end of the cottage and the brick extension on the south-west end are finished with modern fittings and fixtures.

Alterations and additions of the C21 are not of special interest.

HISTORY: The fabric of the cottage indicates a date of the late C17 or early C18. The cottage is shown on the 1841 tithe map and its footprint shows the cottage to have been L-shaped at that time, with the main north-east to south-west orientation of the cottage as it is today, but with a short extension to the north-west. This north-western extension had gone by the time of the publication of the 1909 Ordnance Survey map. In addition an outshot shown on the south-west end of the building on the tithe map, reaching as far as Church Lane, had also gone by that date, which indicates that the cottage was modified at about the turn of the C19/C20 century. Despite its name, the cottage has no known connection with the C13 St Andrew's Church (Grade II* listed) which lies some 50m to the north west.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION Church Cottage, a late C17 or early C18 timber-framed cottage, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: a cottage which retains a significant amount of its original fabric and its lobby-entry plan form * Alteration: the late C18 or early C19 alterations are of interest as they form part of the history of the building.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

503908

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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