The Cottage

Summary

A C17 farm cottage, after the mid-C19 incorporated into the Westwood Lodge estate.

Reasons for Designation

The Cottage, a flint and brick cottage dating form the C17, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date and rate of survival: C17 cottages are an uncommon survival in the area;
* Regional and local characteristics: built of local flint with some flint galleting and brick quoins and chimneystack and its original form, two bays with attics and end chimneystacks, is a regional type;
* Plan form, room use and circulation: retains the original two rooms on each floor accessed by a winder staircase;
* Fixtures and fittings: include chamfered spine beam and floor joists, restored open fireplace with bressumer and some ledged plank doors;
* Proportion of survival: despite some later alterations it retains the external walls with plinth, quoins and gable ends, ceiling beams, C17 external chimneystack and interior fittings - a significant proportion of original fabric.

History

A building is this position is reputed to be shown on a 1793 map and does appear on the one inch 1805-1819 Ordnance Survey map. The chimney has C17 brickwork and it seems to have originated as a two bay end chimneystack C17 cottage. It is possible that this property is no 599 on sheet 2 of the Tithe Apportionment of 1838 for St Peter's and Broadstairs, a house and garden owned and occupied by Mary Packer, connected with 3 arable fields: no 600 Poor Hole Arable, no 601 Nine Rood field and no 605 Little Eight Acres.

After circa 1865 it came into the same ownership as Westwood Lodge, built by the Kensington stockbroker Spencer Herepath as his family's holiday house, and this cottage appears to have been used as a lodge.

On the 1876 First Edition 25'' sheet the building appears with its current footprint, including the front porch and projecting chimneystack to the S and with a large outbuilding to the S. By the Second Edition sheet of 1896 a glasshouse or cold frame is shown immediately S of the house. Possibly it was being used for market gardening at this time.

By the 1907 25'' map this glasshouse is no longer present but a range of four small pens is shown on the eastern side, possibly pigsties.

Details

A C17 farm cottage, after the mid-C19 incorporated into the Westwood Lodge estate.

MATERIALS: knapped flint with flint galleting, brick dressings and a gabled tiled roof with external brick chimneystacks.

PLAN: a single storey and attic two bay cottage with end external chimneystacks, with a later but pre-1876 single storey addition to the N. Internally there were originally two rooms on each floor with end fireplaces and a winder staircase. The later extension provided an additional ground floor room.

EXTERIOR: the principal NW front of the original part has a sloping roof with two gabled dormers. The ground floor has tripartite casement windows and a projecting red brick porch with Flemish gable and plank door on the south side. The single storey northern addition has an additional entrance with a plank door.

The SW end has kneelers to the gable end and a wide projecting brick chimneystack with C17 brickwork, ribbed near the tapering top.

The SE elevation has one dormer window and a number of casement windows and an entrance to the ground floor.

There are attached flint and brick boundary walls on the E, S and W sides.

INTERIOR: access through the porch leads into the central room which has a chamfered spine beam with lamb's tongue stops and exposed floor joists. The open fireplace at the northern end has C19 brickwork but the chamfered bressumer is older.

The S room originally had an open fireplace from the C17 external chimneystack. It may also originally have had exposed floor joists, but now it has a late C18 or early C19 spine beam. A horizontal beam at the junction of the two rooms ground floor rooms was originally a wallplate and has rafter sockets.

The N ground floor room has C20 kitchen fittings.

A late C18 or early C19 wooden winder staircase near the SE end leads to the upper floor which retains a plank door with pintle hinges to the N bedroom, which also retains the top of a brick chimneystack, and a ledged plank door to the S bedroom.

There was no access into the roof space.

End of official list entry

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