Summary
A timber-framed cottage of C16 or C17 date, originally an open hall with a probable jettied solar. The hall was ceiled over in the C17/C18 and the dwelling split into two cottages by the early C19. It has later alterations.
Reasons for Designation
Lilac Cottage, East Winterslow, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a pre-1700 vernacular building with later adaptations this is an early and noteworthy example of an historic dwelling;
* it is well-constructed with notable features including a jettied first floor to one end, jowled posts and smoke-blackened roof timbers;
* the evidence of change including the insertion of a first floor in the early C18 and other extensions and alterations illustrate the evolved historic use of the building;
* the building retains a substantial proportion of its historic fabric and layout.
Historic interest:
* the construction methods of the built fabric is regionally distinctive with later alterations such as the style of brick and flint casing in harmony with the early C19 buildings on the Roche Court estate;
* the plan form illustrates late medieval domestic arrangements and how they developed in later centuries.
History
Lilac Cottage was built in the late C16 or C17 as a timber-framed house, possibly a yeoman farmhouse. It was originally arranged as an open hall with a jettied solar (bed chamber) above a parlour to the north end, and a service end to the south. The hall was ceiled over in the late C17 or early C18 as part of improvements to the accommodation, probably including the insertion of a fireplace. The building is shown on Andrews’ and Dury’s Map of 1773 and it was subsequently encased in brick and flint with the service end possibly being rebuilt. The cottage alterations may have been part of Francis Egerton’s wide-ranging early C19 improvements to his estate, which had begun with the construction of nearby Roche Court in 1804-5 (listed at Grade II*). By 1840, Lilac Cottage was arranged as two dwellings for agricultural labourers and their families. Egerton was the owner, as shown on the parish tithe apportionment. The building is shown on its current footprint on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1876. During the C19 the jetty at the north end was enclosed within an outshut of red brick with framing over, and an outshut to the service end was incorporated into the house.
In the C20 there were alterations to provide modern facilities and to return the building to a single dwelling. Steel ties have been installed, parts of the brick elevations repaired and replaced, and the roof thatched in reed. In the late C20 a concrete garage was built to the south of the cottage.
Details
Cottage of C16/C17 date with later adaptations and alterations.
MATERIALS: of oak-frame construction encased in red brick and flint with an oak roof covered in combed reed thatch. Some elevations are finished in render and the casement windows have modern uPVC units. There is a brick ridge stack.
PLAN: built on a north-east/ south-west orientation close to the road edge, the cottage is of three bays and single storey plus attic with single storey additions to each end.
EXTERIOR: the road front is of three irregular bays with an outshut to each end under a deep, hipped roof covered in thatch. The ground-floor window openings have brick architraves and segmental heads and there is brick and flint banding and a brick plinth. Three steel ties are bolted to the façade and two eyebrow dormer windows to the attic floor. To the left the outshut is brick to the ground floor and timber-framed above with rendered panels incorporating the former jetty to the north end of the primary structure. The south end outshut has a C20 external brick stack. The garden front is of brick and flint to the ground floor and rendered or painted brick to the first floor. There is a door entrance with an adapted moulded frame to the right within a late C20 greenhouse and a principal door entrance to the left of centre under a pitched roof canopy.
INTERIOR: the principal entrance leads into a lobby formed by a chimneybreast and a doorway to each side. To the right, a chamfered oak doorframe within a timber-framed wall has an enclosed modern staircase behind it to the right. The room has a stop-chamfered beam between a rebuilt brick inglenook with an oak bressumer at the south end and a close-studded wall at the north end. To the base of three studs in the north wall is an empty mortice, possibly for a former bench or floor structure. There is a pegged doorframe with chamfering to the right that leads into the narrow north bay of the building (the parlour/ solar wing), which has a C20 bathroom. The north face of the close-studded wall to the former hall has a projecting sill beam with a long empty mortice. The north end wall of the parlour bay is also close-studded with a large sill beam. There is a deep overhang within the end bay (outshut) that is plastered and presumably contains a former jetty. The top of the wall leans inwards, and the sill beam does not span the entire length of the wall. There is a scarf joint to the wall plate.
The room to the left of the principal entrance has a brick inglenook fireplace with a short bressumer to the north wall and an enclosed C20 stair to the first floor. A chamfered beam with no stops spans between the fireplace and an oak-framed wall at the south end. There are doors to the kitchen and cloakroom in the end outshut where jowled posts are in the front and rear walls (there is another jowled post by the staircase next to the principal entrance). The configuration and scantling of the timber framing at this end of the building indicates some adaptation and reuse.
The first floor has evidence of framing to all exterior walls and is arranged as three rooms divided by two closed trusses. An opening has been cut through the lower half of the south truss tie-beam. The central room has a stop-chamfered beam and a sealed fireplace. The north closed truss has brick lower panels and plaster upper panels, and an inserted door to the right to the former solar. The north end wall is framed. There are smoke-blackened roof timbers above the hall that are incorporated into the present roof, which has been altered for the insertion of the brick stack. The north truss has a king post.
There is C19 joinery with ironmongery across the building including doors, panelling and cupboards. There are pine and elm floorboards to some rooms.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 2 January 2024 to correct a typo in the description
