Description

BRANSGORE

1831/0/10020 WILTSHIRE ROAD
04-OCT-06 Corboys Cottage

II
Cottage. C18 in a vernacular style, altered and extended mid-C20.
MATERIALS: cob, brick, timber framing, thatch.
PLAN: The original cottage has a two-up two-down plan with an additional single-storey byre under the same thatched roof. There are two mid-C20 lean-to extensions to the north and a pitched roofed kitchen extension of the same date to the west.

EXTERIOR: The original two-storey cottage is in cob rising from a brick plinth. The roof is hipped and thatched (the upper levels in water reed) with a scalloped ridge and two brick chimneys; one to the centre of the property and one on the original cottage west wall. The deep thatched eaves are moulded around the first floor windows and wooden beams are evident at the junction of the roof and the cob walls. The principal elevation is to the south, with an off-centre gable-end porch protecting the front door. This has a pitched tiled roof with some scalloped tiles and plain ridge tiles. Two late C20 brick buttresses support the south wall. The windows are paired C20 wooden casements with fifteen pane leaded lights and tile window cills, although they appear to be within the original openings. The east elevation has a single modified doorway, now with leaded French doors. There is a mid-C20 single storey kitchen extension to the west, with a pitched tiled roof (some of which are scalloped). There are a further two lean-to extensions to the rear (north) which are probably of the same date. None of these extensions are of special interest.

INTERIOR: The original cottage has two ground floor living rooms divided by a half-timbered and brick partition wall, which has been partially opened up to create the impression of open-plan living. In the west wall is a blocked fireplace flanked to its south by a built in dresser and to its north by the former back door, now an internal door. The main feature on the ground floor is the impressive brick inglenook fireplace in the east wall of the east room. This has a double oven with the upper of the two retaining its iron door. The fire surround in the centre of the inglenook has been replaced. There is impressed decorated plaster above the inglenook cross-beam in a repeated foliate pattern. Within the inglenook, to the south of the fireplace, are a few narrow steps leading up to a Gothic style half-glazed door connecting the living room to the former byre. The awkward position of this doorway implies that it is not original and was probably inserted during the mid-C20 alterations to the property. The byre has a blocked external door in its south wall and two former window heads to the north and south walls; the first is round headed and in brick, the latter has a four-centred Gothic style arch. None of these features are visible externally. The fireplace, in the west wall, backing onto the inglenook, is in brick with an iron grate and is of mid C20 date.
The stairs, which are not original, are located in the centre of the cottage against the cottage north wall. However, the plan form of the building and the constraints imposed by the position of doors, windows and fireplaces would suggest that the original stairs were in this position. The main east bedroom has a chimney in the east wall, window to the south and a horizontal beam running along the north wall, now plastered over. The floor boards are of a considerable width. The second bedroom to the west has a projecting square chimney stack on its west wall, a window in the south wall and evidence of horizontal beams behind plaster on the north and west walls. The roof structure consists of very roughly shaped rafters descending from the ridge beam that exhibit the natural curves of the trees from which they came. The thatch is attached to roughly shaped battens. The majority of the internal doors are well crafted wooden plank doors with traditional wooden cord latches reminiscent of an Arts & Crafts style.

HISTORY: Although the precise construction date for Corboys Cottage is not known, it appears to be stylistically of C18 date. By the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1872 it is depicted as a rectangular property aligned southwest to northeast with a small projecting extension, probably a porch, on its south elevation. At that time the cottage was situated within a large rectangular plot of land, part covered in orchard, in a countryside location remote from other buildings. Corboys remained largely unaltered into the C20 but was then subject to a campaign of alteration and extension to provide more spacious accommodation, including the construction of three single-storey extensions. The western extension houses the kitchen and ancillary areas and further living accommodation and a bathroom were housed in lean-to extensions to the north. These mid-C20 extensions are not of special interest.
The village appears to have been slow to develop from a collection of scattered cottages around the common. In 1840 the Canon of Winchester was less than complimentary when he referred to the settlement as a 'neglected common with a group of mud cottages... the refuge for the most part, of those who have been chased from more civilised places'. The village was on a shepherding route between Ringwood and Milton and was also known for brick manufacturing with much of Bournemouth built using Bransgore bricks. In 1857 six out of nineteen tradesmen in the village were recorded as brickmakers. The unusual combination of cob with a brick plinth at Corboys is on account of this local manufacturing industry.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Corboys Cottage has special interest as an C18 vernacular cottage. Although it has experienced some alterations and additions, its historic plan-form is readable and it retains its original cob walling as well as internal features of interest such as timber-framing and an inglenook fireplace. The presence of a byre under the same thatched roof as the rest of the cottage is a rare survival for the New Forest.

SOURCES: www.bransgore.org.uk/history.htm

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671125

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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey