Burrow Cottage

Summary

Cottage, late C16 or C17, with later extensions.

Reasons for Designation

Burrow Cottage is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a building substantially pre-dating the 1700 threshold, which retains a good proportion of historic fabric from that original phase of construction, and from subsequent pre-1850 additions;
* a characterful building in which the timber frame survives well internally, and illustrates the vernacular traditions of the area.

Historic interest:

* a legible illustration of the development of a smallholder’s cottage, beginning as a diminutive dwelling, and undergoing a number of phases of improvement and extension, which remain legible in the surviving fabric.

History

Burrow Cottage appears to have originated as a two-cell smallholder’s dwelling. While no firm date has been established, the style and weight of the timber frame, and the deeply-chamfered ceiling beams suggest it may have been constructed in the late C16 or C17. It is present on the Tithe map of 1839, and the apportionment records the cottage and garden, with adjacent orchard, meadow and wheat field.

The two cells of the original cottage survive as the central two bays. The bay to the east had been added by 1839; it may have been built to serve an agricultural function, and was accessed externally until the late C20. It had been converted and incorporated into the domestic accommodation by 1981; doorways were inserted into the timber frame of the original building, and the first floor and fireplace inserted. The Tithe map, and the Ordnance Survey maps from 1884 and 1903, show that there was a structure to the east of the building, which by the time of the 1960 map had been demolished; remnants of its walls survive in the garden. The bathroom and store room were not part of the original construction, but had been added to the north side of the building by 1839.

A photograph in 'A Country Parish: Neen Savage in 1981’ shows the cottage. It appears, at that time, to have had a hipped roof at the west end. In the period since, the building has been extended to enlarge the kitchen, and the utility room has been added to the rear.

Details

Cottage, late C16 or C17, with later extensions.

MATERIALS: the central two bays of the building are a timber-framed construction faced in rubble stone; the eastern bay is stone. The roof is thatched and there is a brick chimneystack.

PLAN: the cottage is a linear range orientated east-west.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces south; it is a four-bay range of a single-storey and an attic. The building is likely to have originated as a two-cell structure with an external stack on the west end; this survives as the central two bays. There is a central timber-framed porch (possibly added in the C19, modified in the C20) with a thatched, pitched roof, with a window to either side and two eyebrow dormers to the attic. The front door is a ledge-and plank structure with an inserted light. The ground-floor window openings have been modified and have cambered brick lintels; most windows are iron-framed casements. The bay to the right (east) has a single ground floor window, formed from an earlier doorway. The east gable has a flat-arched, six-light casement window on the ground floor, and a smaller window to the attic. There are barge boards at the eaves, and the ends of four ranks of purlins project from the masonry. The wide left-hand (western) bay is largely a late C20 construction and is excluded from the listing.

The building has been extended along the rear (north) elevation in a number of phases. At the east end is a small store beneath a deep catslide roof. To the west the catslide has been truncated and a shallow slate roof inserted to raise the internal height. West again is a late-C20 rendered extension with a shallow lean-to roof (excluded from the listing).

INTERIOR: large sections of the box-framing of the original two-cell cottage survive internally. The frame has a deep sill plate mounted on a stone plinth, and is two bays in height on the ground floor, with diagonal corner braces. There are axial ceiling beams with very deep chamfers supporting roughly-hewn joists. The western room of the ground floor has a wide splayed fireplace; the plaster on one side has been removed to expose the roughly-coursed rubble stone and brick construction. It has a deep, chamfered bressumer with possible apotropaic markings. The attic is reached by a modern stair in the eastern bay; the floor frame has been modified to incorporate this enlarged opening. In the attic the timber framing continues, rising to trusses with collar and tie beams and upright struts. The room to the west has a small fireplace inserted into the brick stack. There are a number of historic ledge and plank doors with strap hinges.

The timber frame bears evidence on both storeys that the doorways into the easternmost rooms are insertions. The uniformity and structure of the floor frame in the easternmost room, visible on the ground floor, suggests it is likely to date from the C20. There is a deep fireplace with a flagstone hearth and a slender timber lintel; this too is a C20 construction of concrete block.

The bathroom stands within a historic extension at the rear of the building, and incorporates the timber framing of the rear wall of the original building.

The kitchen, extended in the late C20, occupies the westernmost bay. It has a fireplace built upon the back of the original external gable stack. The utility room occupies a late-C20 extension. These are excluded from the listing.

Sources

Books and journals
Ratcliff, Elisabeth, A Country Parish: Neen Savage in 1981, (1981), 22
Ratcliff, Elisabeth, Neen Savage 2000, (2000)

End of official list entry

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