Description

TQ 54 NE
5/159

HILDENBOROUGH
MILL LANE (east side)
Bassetts cottage and Asturias Cottage

GV
II

Pair of small houses. Possibly C17 or earlier in origin, judging from some of
the brickwork, but extensively re-modelled, probably in the C19, re-using C16
and C17 timbers. Flemish bond brick with blue headers to the ground floor,
some of the brick on the end walls handmade; first floor tile-hung; peg-tile
roof; brick stack. 1980s rear additions weatherboarded with old peg-tile
roofs.

Plan and Development: A pair of mirror plan roadside houses, facing west.
Each house has a principal room to the front, heated from back-to-back
fireplaces in the axial stack, with a straight stair rising inside the room
against the rear wall. Front doors in the north and south ends. Short rear
wings at right angles appear to be secondary, providing unheated service
rooms. These have been extended in the 1980s by single-storey rear additions
which match one another. Most of the internal carpentry is C16 or C17 but the
details suggest that almost all of it is re-used.

Exterior: 2 storeys. Roof half-hipped at ends. Symmetrical 4-window front
with a set of matching C19 2-light first floor timber casements, 2-panes per
light. 2 similar 3-light ground floor casements, these are slightly recessed
with chamfered lintels. Asturias Cottage, to the right (south) has a shallow
C20 timber bow window with small panes on the right (south return).

Interior: The principal room of each house has a chamfered stopped crossbeam
and joists. Bassetts Cottage has joists with step nick stops. Asturias
Cottage has joists with step stops on one side and runout stops on the other,
both sets of joists may be re-used. The exposed rails on the rear wall
framing of both houses are re-used. Asturias Cottage preserves C19
matchboarding to the stair, and both houses have probably C18 ledged plank
stair doors with strap hinges.

Roof: Asturias Cottage only inspected. This has a queen post roof, with
almost every timber re-used with redundant mortises, the existing fixings are
long projecting pegs. Some of the rafters have a soot crust and may have
originated from an open hall house.

An attractive pair of small traditional houses. Group value with Limes
Farmhouse opposite and to the south.

Listing NGR: TQ5596649658

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26645027

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)