Description

DUNSFORD BRITON STREET LANE, (east side),
SX 88 NW Dunsford

6/38 Brownings Cottage

-

30.6.61

GV II

Small cottage. C17 or earlier origins, alterations of the 1950s. Whitewashed
rendered cob on stone rubble footings; asbestos slate roof (formerly thatched),
gabled at ends; left end stack, axial stack.
The present plan is an interesting survival of what was a carpenter's shop at the
left end with an adjacent small C17 single depth cottage, at the right end. The
cottage has 2 rooms, the principal room is a hall to the left heated by a stack
backing on to a cross entry (opposed front and rear doors), which may originally have
been a passage, the right-hand (lower end) partition missing. The hall has a winder
stair against the rear wall in line with the stack. A small room to the right of the
cross entry may have been a store. The former carpenter's shop at the left end is
now used as a sitting room but is still single storey; it may be a later addition to
the cottage but a pegged doorway between the cottage and the shop suggests that it is
probably no later than the C18 and it is likely to have had a separate entrance on
the front before the present C20 door was inserted. In the 1950s the thatch was
replaced and the eaves have since been raised.
Single storey to the left, 2 storey to the centre and right. Irregular 2-window
front with no first floor windows to the front elevation. To the right of the axial
stack the roof is brought down as a pentice over a cambered chamfered doorframe with
a plank and cover strip front door. To the right of the front door the half-room is
slightly advanced and clad with weatherboarding. To the left a half-glazed C20 front
door into the former carpenter's shop is flanked by 2-light casements, 4 panes per
light, the right-hand casement lighting the hall which has a large semi-circular
projecting bread oven to the axial stack.
Interior considerable survival of C17 carpentry and joinery for such a small
building. The hall fireplace has been partly blocked by a C20 grate but the
fireplace has a chamfered timber lintel resting on a stone rubble jamb at the front
wall. A chamfered half beam with bar stops in front of the stack may indicate a
jetty. There is a similar half-beam against the wall between the hall and
carpenter's shop. The lintel over the doorway into the hall between the stack and
the stair is chamfered and stopped and a chamfered doorway with step stops on the
first floor leads into the right-hand first floor room. A large chamfered cross beam
marks the right-hand side of the cross entry and the half-room has exposed joists.
No access to roofspace at time of survey (1985) but no principal rafters are visible
in the first floor rooms and it seems likely that they have been replaced.
Brownings Cottage is a rare survival of a single-storey craftsman's shop with a small
adjoining C17 cottage. It is one of 3 early houses on the east side of Briton Street
Lan which leads up to the centre of Dunsford village.

Listing NGR: SX8135588960

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26576789

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

• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)