The Old Cottage

Summary

House, probably C17 with later C17 and subsequent phases.

Reasons for Designation

Old Cottage, Sholden is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a post-medieval, lobby-entrance type house whose structure, plan and fabric is instructive of its early character and subsequent evolution;

* for the survival of historic interior features including a notable quantity of joinery and associated fittings.

Historic interest:

* for its illustration of evolving building patterns within an ongoing vernacular tradition.

History

The Old Cottage at Sholden may have historically been associated with the Manor of Hull. A manor of medieval origin, the last iteration of the manor house, Hull Place (now subdivided), has early-C18 origins and is situated approximately 150 metres to the west of the cottage.

The Old Cottage is a building of multiple phases. Diagnostic features point to a C17 build date, with subsequent phases of the same century and later.

The house has a lobby-entrance type plan with a large central chimney stack. The outer envelope is of brick, with timber studwork forming internal partitions. A brick by the front door is carved with the date ‘1667’ and the initials ‘AA’. There is a second date brick, apparently bearing the same date, high in the gable of the brick wing to the rear. This rear wing is unlikely to be primary.

There is evidence for the east room of the principal range having been extended further eastwards and the roof having been raised. These alterations are likely to have been carried out in several phases, the extension first and then the roof lifted, the latter possibly in the late-C18 or early C19. The current roof timbers may date from this period or be later still. There is also evidence that the house may at one stage have been occupied as two dwellings.

A lean-to stable against the rear of the house is probably of early C19 date and maps indicate that the detached barn to the north-west dates from between 1840 and 1872. The pig sties beyond the barn are C20 and later. C20 interventions in the house include the external porch around the front door and the addition of several dormer windows to the south-west.

Details

House, probably C17 with later C17 and subsequent phases.

MATERIALS: red brick, slate roof with clay tile to the central outshut. Windows and doors are predominantly timber (there are several uPCV replacements to the rear).

PLAN: the house faces south-east. It has a lobby-entrance type plan under a hipped roof. Principal rooms are arranged either side of a large central stack; the main entrance aligns with the stack and on the far side is a winder stair, housed in an outshut. Beneath the right-hand room is a cellar, reached through a hatch in the entrance lobby.

The main range is of three-and-a-half bays, the left-hand half bay extending back behind the building to form a rear, one-and-a-half storey, wing under a pitched roof. There is a large brick stack against the end wall of this wing.

To the rear, the principal hipped roof drops to a catslide over two adjacent outshuts of different date. The central outshut is earlier and the one to the east is later, built as a stable and accessed from the rear of the house.

EXTERIOR: the front elevation is asymmetric, with a C20 pitch-roofed brick entrance porch to the centre and a large re-built ridge stack slightly off-centre to the right. The roof hip to the left extends below the eaves over the half bay. The bays to right and left of the door are lit at ground and first floors by two-over-two sliding sash windows and two further small casement windows on the ground floor. The brickwork is indicative of phased construction, the first floor appearing later, and the ground floor showing evidence of openings altered in shape and size. A brick by the front door is carved with the date ‘1667’ and the initials ‘AA’.

The south-west flank elevation is contiguous with the rear wing. The brickwork is patched but the general character is consistent with a C17 date. To the right is a brick buttress and a plat band runs over the heads of the doors and windows. There are two doorways and four irregularly spaced and sized windows (now uPVC) and two dormer windows above, added in the C20. A rebuilt, truncated, stack emerges at the far end of the roof, against the steeply-pitched gable parapet of the north-west end wall. This end wall has a small blocked opening in the gable and a brick dated 1667 (or possibly 1661). The lower part of the wall is screened by a brick lean-to with tiled roof.

The north-east flank elevation has three-light casement windows with glazing bars on ground and first floors. The arched head of a small, blocked, cellar window is visible at ground level. There is scarring in the brickwork on the left hand-side to suggest the lifting and altering of the roof form. There is also a small blocked window in this area.

To the rear (north-west) are the two outshuts beneath the catslide of the roof. The central one is rendered with a tiled roof; the other, which is the later stable, is taller and deeper in plan, built of yellow brick with a central stable door and slate roof.

INTERIOR: within the building’s ground floor rooms is a quantity of exposed structural timber. This may be primary but shows evidence of alteration or reconfiguration. The lobby entrance opens only into the left-hand room; the right-hand room is reached via a passage to the rear of the stack. A winder stair opens into the passage, its footprint is within the central rear outshut.

The ceiling frame in the left hand of the two principal rooms has two chamfered spine beams carrying chamfered joists. It is possible that the ceiling frame has been lifted and the room proportions altered to the north and west. The bressumer over the inglenook fireplace is carved with a simple geometric motif. This is repeated at a smaller scale on the fireplace bressumer in the right-hand room on the first floor.

The right-hand room on the ground floor also has two exposed spine beams although the joists are ceiled-over. These beams have ovolo mouldings and both have been extended in length with a spliced joint and iron strap approximately two-thirds along their length. The length of the beams before extension corresponds with the dimensions of the cellar beneath, suggesting this room was extended at some point.

The rear wing appears structurally separate from the rest of the house; it is at a lower ground level and is reached through an opening in a thick internal wall which might align with the original back wall of the house. The ceiling frame of the wing is exposed and comprises a large chamfered cross beam with lamb’s tongue stops and chamfered and stopped joists.

There are examples of historic joinery, fixtures and fittings throughout the house, ranging in date from the C17 to the C20. These include a number of early doors, fireplace cupboards and a brick-built ‘copper’ in the rear range.

The cellar is brick-lined and has arched alcoves in the walls. The ceiling has a single spine beam which is chamfered and stopped.

End of official list entry

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