Description

LUPPITT WICK
ST 10 SE
10/85 Cuckoo Cottage
-
GV II
House, former farmhouse. Early C16, much altered in the late C16 - early C17, some
mid C17 alterations, a datestone of 1713 possibly associated with a rearrangement.
Local stone and flint rubble with some cob to rear; stone rubble stacks with flint
rubble with some cob to rear; stone rubble stacks with stone rubble chimneyshafts;
thatch roof.
Plan and development: 3-room plan house facing south and built down the hillslope.
Downhill at the left (west) end is a small unheated room, probably a former buttery
or dairy. Next to it is the parlour (probably the former hall) which has an axial
stack backing onto the former buttery/dairy and there is also a winder stair this
end. The front doorway is directly into this room. At the right (east) end is the
former kitchen with a gable-end stack. The house has been much altered and much of
the evidence of its early development has been removed or is hidden. Nevertheless
one smoke-blackened truss indicates some form of early C16 open hall house heated by
an open hearth fire. However most of the fabric appears to date from the late C16 -
early C17. The centre room looks as though it was the hall. If so the passage and
service end would have been at the left (west) end and have been rebuilt. The 'inner
room' kitchen appears to have been refurbished in the mid C17 although there is a
dateplaque on the chimneyshaft dated 1713. However, the lower end, the
dairy/buttery, could well have been rebuilt in 1713. The house is 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular front fenestration with 3 ground floor windows and 2 first
floor windows, all are late C19 and C20 casements and the earlier ones contain
rectangular panes of leaded glass. The front doorway is just right of centre and it
contains a late C19 - early C20 plank door. The roof is gable-ended to right and is
hipped to left. The right chimneyshaft contains a Beerstone plaque inscribed with
the initials IB and date 1713.
Interior: the left room, the former dairy/buttery, has plain carpentry detail
including the roof. The hall/parlour has a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with
oak lintel and chamfered surround with step stops. The crossbeam is also chamfered
with step stops. Alongside the fireplace is an oak plank screen containing a
cupboard and doorway to the winder stair. This is probably early C18. An oak-
framed crosswall separates hall/parlour and kitchen. The kitchen has a roughly-
finished crossbeam and a plastered stone rubble fireplace with oak-framed front
which has a chamfered surround with scroll stops. Both these features are mid Cl7.
There is a 3-bay roof between the stacks carried on side-pegged jointed cruck
trusses. The left one is smoke-blackened the right one is clean. Both were once
closed (probably part of the late C16 - early C17 alterations) but the first floor
partitions have since been rearranged.
Cuckoo Cottage forms a group with other listed buildings in the hamlet of Wick.

Listing NGR: ST1711803849

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26461682

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)