Sandy Lane Cottage

Details

BRIGHSTONE

1354/0/10016 UPPER LANE 27-MAR-07 Sandy Lane Cottage

II Cottage. Built between 1727 and 1767; C20 outshut to rear and some C20 modifications.

MATERIALS: Constructed of chalk blocks on a greensand plinth. Thatch roof with brick chimneys, and a weatherboard outshut at the rear of the building.

PLAN: Two bay of simple two up, two down plan, with an outshut at the rear. The south bay is the kitchen and the north bay the parlour. The smaller of the two bedrooms on the first lies above the rear end of the parlour, and the master bedroom lies transversely across the kitchen and parlour at the front of the cottage. There is a loft room above.

EXTERIOR: The front elevation is symmetrical with a central, later, wooden porch and plank door flanked by a window on either side at ground level and similarly positioned windows at first floor level. The casement windows on ground and first floor all have leaded lights; those on the ground floor have square panes whilst those on the first floor have diamond patterning. There were originally windows in both the north and south gable ends, but the window in the north wall is now bricked up. The south gable window is a two-by-two casement. The gabled thatched roof descends over the outshut at the rear of the building as a catslide roof to within 1.22m of the ground. At each of the gable ends is a brick chimney stack.

INTERIOR: The centrally positioned front door opens into one large ground floor area, but originally the two ground floor rooms were divided by a passage which crossed from the front door to the rear door of the cottage, which now gives access to the outshut. The partition walls between the passage and the rooms either side have been removed but original ceiling beams and joists survive. There were originally doors to enter the parlour and kitchen opposite each other at the east end of the cottage. The kitchen has a large fireplace in the end wall with an oak bressumer, now an alcove. In the parlour is a mid C19 iron hob grate.

The rear door of the cottage opens into the later outshut, which has two further rooms. On the left, the south side of the cottage, is a utility room with a door to the garden. On the right a door opens into the bathroom.

The modern stairs to the first floor rise from the rear of the parlour area in a position which would originally have been at the end of the through passage. At the top of the stairs is a landing giving access to the smaller of the two bedrooms, and further east along the landing to the front bedroom which has a small Victorian fireplace. Exposed beams and joists in the bedrooms.

A rustic ladder from the landing gives access to the loft which is used as a further bedroom. Roof structure comprises A-frame principal rafters and staggered trenched purlin to each side.

HISTORY: Sandy Lane Cottage was built, according to documentary evidence, between 1727 and 1767, and is depicted on an Ordnance Survey map of 1862 with an outshut and outbuilding in place. Whether this is the outshut that currently exists is unclear and it is possible that the current structure is a mid-C20 rebuilding and is of lesser interest.The porch is not shown on the map as it is a later early-C20 addition. The cottage is the only building on Sandy Lane which is now a footpath up to the downs from North Street which was the historic core of the village of Brighstone

SOURCES: Marion Brinton, Farmhouses and Cottages of the Isle of Wight (1981)

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Sandy Lane Cottage is a good example of a small, chalk-block and thatched, early-mid C18 cottage which retains its character, plan form and much of its original fabric and features. The outshut is of lesser interest.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

496390

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Brinton, M, Farmhouses and Cottages of the Isle of Wight, (1981)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.