No 13 and Attached Boundary Wall

Details

Cottage and attached boundary wall. The wall is of c.1640 with some reused Roman and medieval fabric. The cottage is of early C19 date with a mid-C19 rear extension. The wall is of brick with some reused Roman bricks, tufa and medieval Caen stone to the plinth. The cottage is of two storeys, the front of red brick with some grey headers, the left side tile-hung to the first floor and painted brick to the ground floor. The tiled roof is hipped to the front and gabled to the rear and the side elevation has a partially projecting brick chimneystack.

PLAN: The cottage is one room deep with three rooms to each floor with a half-winder staircase behind a partition to the east.

EXTERIOR: The front elevation has a 12-pane sash window in a moulded architrave to the first floor and a 16-pane sash window with cambered head lining to the ground floor. The brickwork to the left of the door has been renewed. There is a right-side simple cambered doorcase with late C20 door with four flush panels replacing an earlier door with glazed upper panels. An C18 or early C19 boundary stone embedded in the wall immediately to the right of the door indicates the former boundary between St Margaret's and St Mary Bredin parishes. The rear elevation has a casement window to each floor. There is a projecting one storey mid-C19 rear extension of brick, painted to the south east, with slate roof and brick chimneystack. Embedded in the cottage and forming the boundary wall to No 13 to the south east is a wall of c.1640, originally part of the garden wall to No 16 Watling Street. It stands about nine feet high and is built of two-inch brick on a plinth of reused Caen stone, tufa and some Roman brick. It has the remains of a chamfered corbelled brick coping supported on dentil bricks and a blocked doorway with a simple semi-circular arched head.

INTERIOR: The cottage is approached through a lobby with a half-glazed door. The front room has one wall with original dado-panelling and others with beaded plank dado panelling. A ledged plank door leads to the rear ground floor room which retains an original wooden fireplace and original dado panelling. There is a half-winder staircase to the west built into a wooden partition with ledged and plank access door and two built-in cupboards. The upper floor retains three ledged plank doors with old hinges and built-in cupboards.

HISTORY: The boundary wall was built as part of the detached garden wall to Sir John Mann's house at No 16 Watling Street. Sections of Roman walls were excavated nearby in the 1980s which may be the source of the reused Roman material. The cottage may have originated as a groom's cottage to 16 Watling Street and was once called Groom's Cottage. At a later stage it is thought to have been the cottage to a market garden and a greenhouse is shown nearby on the 1878 Ordnance Survey map.

STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: Of special interest as a substantially intact early C19 brick and tile-hung cottage retaining multi-paned sash windows, and with the additional the historic interest of a parish boundary stone embedded in the front wall. The interior retains the original plan form with original joinery, which includes a half-winder staircase built in to a wooden partition incorporating an access door and two cupboard doors, a number of ledged plank doors with original hinges, dado panelling and a fireplace. It is built into a pre-existing c.1640 section of a garden wall, originally to 16 Watling Street, which is also listed for its special interest as a good quality section of early brick garden wall with a blocked entrance, which retains some reused Roman bricks and tufa and medieval Caen stone in the plinth.

End of official list entry

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