Description

BRENTWOOD

TQ59SE DARK LANE, Great Warley
723-1/8/136 (West side)
20/02/76 Nos.4 AND 5
Boyles Court Cottages
(Formerly Listed as:
DARK LANE, Great Warley
Nos.4 AND 5
Boyles Cottages)

GV II

Pair of cottages. Mid-C16 and C20. Timber-framed, plastered
and colourwashed with weatherboard below sills, peg-tiled
roof. Long rectangular plan with 2 lean-to rear additions and
C20 rebuilding of N end in form of 2 storey cross-wing in red
brick. Stacks at each gable end and larger stack in red brick
off central towards N end, set to rear of roof apex. Cottages
parallel to the road at right-angles to Nos 2 & 3 (qv).
EXTERIOR: single storey and attic. Front, E elevation, all
windows C20, 2-light casements with glazing bars, 4x4 panes,
N-S, No.4, 2 windows, boarded door with simple lean-to
peg-tiled porch on posts, door-frame has moulded architrave,
gabled dormer window above with 2-light casement with glazing
bars, 4x3 panes, shared stack. No.5, 2 windows with dormer
window above as No.4, door as No.4, window. Rear, W elevation
irregular, principal range, S-N, No.5, S addition, wholly C20,
brick with flat roof, central door with glazed panel and
adjacent 2-light casement window, original house wall with C20
2-light casement with glazing bars, 4x2 panes, above, dormer
window with C20 2-light casement window 4x3 panes, principal
stack, C19 out-shut (shed now for No.5) with stack in yellow
brick, corrugated asbestos cement roof with C20 single light
casement window with glazing bars, 2x2 panes. C20 rebuilt end
as cross-wing with one ground and one first-floor window, both
2-light casements with glazing bars, 4x3 panes. S end
elevation, stack totally rebuilt in C20, ground floor C20 tall
slit fixed window and top opening casement window in C20 rear
addition. C20 gable attic window of 2 lights with glazing
bars, 4x3 panes. N end elevation, old house weatherboarded,
stack rebuilt, ground floor, 2 casement windows, top opening,
with glazing bars, 2x3 panes. C20 brick rendered rear
addition, plain door with glazed panel and 2-light casement
window with glazing bars, 4x3 panes. Gable attic window, C20
2-light, glazing bars, 2x3 panes.
INTERIOR: heavy studding in both cottages with jowled post to
tie-beam at chimney partition. House exterior seen in old rear
out-shut has external arched brace with elegant curve from
central post to wall plate. Roof of side purlin type with
arched wind braces. 3 cells of 4 bays, central 2 bay hall with
deep section joists with run-out chamfered edges, carpenters'
marks on ceiling joists and frame members. Doorway and stair
position probably original at rear of hall to S end room. Very
wide timber lintel to central fireplace facing No.5, with
remains of arched decoration. Floor framing in 2 uneven
sections. Size of fireplace, an upper stud over the central
tie-beam in No.4 and an elegant, curved, carefully chamfered
collar, slightly sooted, next to the stack in No.5 suggest the
existence of a timber hood before the present brick stack. If
so, the hall floor is probably inserted with the stack and
slight sooting of the roof is caused by the billowing of smoke
from the edges of the hood, set within the small open hall.
Gable attic windows in original position over tie-beams
providing lighting for end storeyed bays. The house
demonstrates the changes taking place in the mid-C16, between
the medieval open hall and the fully 2-storey house with
heated rooms of the C17.
Nos 2 & 3 (qv), 4 & 5 Dark Lane form a group.

Listing NGR: TQ5825891284

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26683335

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

• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)