Description

HIGH BICKINGTON STRAWBERRY LANE
SS 62 SW
5/112 Northwood Cottage
-
II

Farmhouse, now house. Probably late C15 or early C16, heavily remodelled and partly
demolished probably in the mid to late C17. Mid to late C19 addition and late C20
internal and external alterations. Rendered cob with Welsh-slate roof, gable-ended to
left and hipped to right. Rendered end stacks to left and to rear wing.
Plan and development: Two-room central-entrance plan, facing north. Hall to left
with integral end stack and unheated former service room to right. Entrance lobby
between with staircase rising straight up from lobby. Probably former late-Medieval
2- or 3-room and through-passage plan, remodelled in the late C17 with the flooring
of the probably formerly open hall and the insertion of the end stack, and the
insertion of the staircase (the present staircase is C19) in the passage (see opposed
rear doorway). There was possibly an unheated inner room to the left of the hall, or
a C16 or early C17 addition at this end of the house but it has since been
demolished, probably during the late C17 remodelling (or possibly later) which might
explain the insertion of the stack at the left-hand end of the hall rather than,
which was more usual, backing onto the passage at the right-hand end. The house was
completely reroofed in the C17 too but many earlier roof timbers were reused. C19
(or possibly later) one-roomed plan wing at the rear of the former passage with
external end stack. The C20 alterations included the addition of the front porch.
Two storeys.
Exterior: Roughly symmetrically 2-window front; C19 three-light wooden casements with
wooden lintels. Roughly central doorway between the windows has a C19 plank door
with wooden lintel, and C20 rendered gabled porch.
Interior: Hall has fireplace with deep splayed stone jambs, unchamfered wooden lintel
and bread oven with C19 cast-iron door, set in taller arched opening. Both ground-
floor rooms have rough ceiling beams and C20 plaster ceilings. Probably C20 stud
partitions flanking probably C19 staircase.
C17 four-bay roof with 3 trusses consisting of straight principals with pegged
mortice and tenoned apices and pegged lap-jointed collars, all reusing much smoke-
blackened timber from the former late-Medieval roof. The rest of the roof is late
C20 as is the roof over the rear wing.
A pile of old timbers behind the pair of adjacent barns (not included on this list)
was noted at the time of survey (January 1988) and included a number of C17 or
earlier timbers including a chamfered ceiling half-beam with ogee stops and a
probable former cruck blade. These timbers may have been removed from the house
during the C20 alterations or may have been part of another, now demolished, building
on the site. It is unlikely that they were removed from the remaining pair of barns.

Listing NGR: SS6135721315

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26399013

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

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)