Description

DIPTFORD SX75NW DIPTFORD 4/241 Church House and Church Cottage

GV II

Pair of attached cottages probably originally one house. Circa early C17 or late C16 with later alterations including circa C18 rear wing and C20 addition at left end. roughcast stone rubble. Asbestos slate roof with gabled ends. Gable end stack at the original left hand end. there appears to be a truncated axial stack to the right of centre. Plan: Original plan uncertain. Originally it was either a 2-room plan with a central through passage, the narrow right hand room being an C18 addition, possibly built at the same time as the unheated rear wing of 1- room plan which was added behind the central room and the right hand room. Alternatively the right hand room may have been the third room of a 3 room plan. the right and left hand rooms are heated from gable end stacks neither has an oven; and the left hand room has a newel stairs in the gable end wall to the left (front) of the fireplace. There may have been a stack between the centre room and the right hand room but a staircase now rises against this partition wall; probably inserted when the house was divided into 2 cottages. Church Cottage occupies the narrow right hand room and the unheated rear wing and church house occupies the central and left hand rooms and has a small kitchen in an addition along the side of the rear wing. In the C20 a 1-room plan addition was built at the left hand end open on the ground floor. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window range. 3 sashes on the first floor, the left hand window as early C19 16-pane sash, the others are C20. Ground floor a small C20 sash with glazing bars to the left and 2 late C19 or early C20 2 and 3-light casements to the right with glazing bars. Doorway slightly left of centre with C20 wall below which is slightly splayed back at this end. At the left hand end a 1-room plan addition, open on the ground floor and the first floor supported on corner piers. Wing at the rear has a half hipped slate roof. Interior: The plank and muntin screen between the left hand room and the passage, the muntins chamfered on the passage side with hollow step stops and mason's mitres and a doorway with a cambered head. The plank and muntin partition on the right hand side has been removed except for a short section at the front. The passage has deeply chamfered joists with hollow step stops. The left hand room has a rough cross beam with slight chamfer and some chamfered joists with hollow step stops. The fireplace in the left hand gable end has an unchamfered timber lintel and newel stairs to its left. The hollow right hand room (Church cottage) has a small fireplace with a roughly chamfered timber lintel. Roof: straight principal rafters with mortices for threaded purlins, the apexes are lap jointed and it appears that the principals have been reused and the common rafters replaced. Only the interior of Church House was inspected.

Listing NGR: SX7275056712

External Links

• Wikidata Q26610564

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Recommended Books

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  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
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  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)