Description

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST BIRD-IN-HAND STREET, OLD
GROOMBRIDGE
16/450 Nos 3 and 4 (formerly listed as
20.10.54 Pair of Cottages immediately
south of The Forge)
GV II*

2 cottages, built as one house. Probably mid/late C17 with minor C19 and C20
alterations. Weatherboarded timber frame on coursed sandstone footings; brick
stacks and chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof.

Plan: Pair of cottages facing north east. No 3 to left (south east) has a 2-
room plan. The left end room is unheated and the right room has an axial
stack backing onto No 4. No 4 has a one-room plan with a right (north west)
end stack. Both cottages have service rooms in rear outshots.

The 2 cottages have evidently been made by subdividing a mid/late C17 3-room
lobby entrance plan house. Originally there was only the axial stack serving
the centre room (the right end stack is a late, probably C19, addition). The
winder stair to rear of the stack (now belonging to No 4) is probably the
original staircase. The house was clearly built before the adjoining
building, Nos 1 and 2 (q.v.), since there are blocked windows from the cellar
upwards in the left (south east) end wall blocked by the adjoining house.

This pair of cottages is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace with a cellar
below the left end (No 3) and secondary lean-to outshots to rear.

Exterior: Irregular front fenestration with 4 ground floor windows and 2
first floor windows, mostly C19 and C20 casements containing diamond panes of
leaded glass. However some of the frames are original, e.g. first floor
window over the centre room has flat faced mullion with shallow internal ogee
moulding. 2 similar front doorways up flights of stone steps. Both have C19
plank doors under shallow flat hoods with moulded edges on shaped timber
brackets. It is a tall house and has a tall and steeply-pitched roof, hipped
both ends, and containing 2 front hip-roofed dormer windows.

Interior: The original C17 carpentry is well-preserved. Wall framing of
relatively large scantling timbers with curving tension braces. End rooms
have plain axial joists whilst the main central room has a moulded axial beam.
The fireplace to the central room is blocked but its brick sides and back show
in a cupboard and it has a chamfered oak lintel. Roof of tie-beam trusses
with clasped side purlins. The downhill (left) end wall appears to contain
blocked windows on each floor, the cellar one still containing a grille of
slender diamond mullions.

Nos 3 and 4 are a very good and well-preserved modest C17 house and they form
part of the exceptional group of listed buildings associated with Groombridge
Place (q.v.) in Old Groombridge.

Listing NGR: TQ5297937698

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547160

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas