Description

NUFFIELD

565/0/10009 HUNTERCOMBE END
18-FEB-11 MAYFIELD COTTAGE

II
Cottage, early C17 with C19 lean-to extension and later alterations.

MATERIALS: timber frame with brick and plaster infill, rendered and painted externally; tiled roof, probably replacing thatch.

PLAN: two storeys plus attic, with entrance doorway in front gable and stack and stair set against rear gable wall. Probably originally single-celled; now with kitchen and bathroom in ground-floor lean-to, and first floor divided into stair hall and two bedrooms.

EXTERIOR: two storeys with steeply-pitched gabled roof; lean-to extension under catslide roof to west. Irregular fenestration comprising modern timber casements set in openings of various sizes and shapes. Modern glazed door to south.

INTERIORS: principal ground-floor room retains original ceiling structure, comprising heavy stop-chamfered axial beam with nine pairs of slightly chamfered edge-set joists supporting floorboards. Chamfer-stops at north end of beam are approximately 0.25m from end wall, perhaps indicating the position of a former spere (short screen) next to the fireplace. The latter is of brick and clunch (hard chalk), with cambered and stop-chamfered lintel bearing a series of stamped and incised markings including the letters TW, ID (repeated) and what has been interpreted as an apotropaic or warding mark resembling the Greek chi-rho symbol. Staircase in north-west corner retains parts of original fabric including jambs and lintel of access doorway and a moulded newel to the quarter-turn upper section. Box framing of outer walls is exposed here, including studs, mid rail, tie beam and a heavily jowled corner post. Lean-to contains bathroom and kitchen, the latter enlarged by the removal of part of the original north wall, with an inserted beam taking the joist-ends.

On first floor, an early plank door gives access to the larger bedroom, which contains the upper part of the stack structure. Further box framing elements exposed at this level in north, east and west walls. Roof structure, visible here and in the attic, comprises a series of close-set pairs of common rafters, one of the middle pairs being joined by a tie beam, collar and two struts to form a queen-strut truss, with clasped purlins providing additional support. Underside of middle tie beam displays numerous mortices and dowel-holes, suggesting re-use of timber. Attic ceiling structure, apparently original, comprises a series of joists suspended from rafters and supported on central axial beam, the latter reinforced centrally by a third vertical strut rising from the tie beam. Gable ends have been rebuilt in brick, and roof truss in southern (front) gable is a modern replacement.

HISTORY: little is known of the history of Mayfield Cottage, but the surviving fabric suggests that the building dates from the early C17. It appears always to have been a single-cell cottage, although it may conceivably have once formed part of a larger structure. The first-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1878 shows the cottage already in its present form, with a lean-to addition against the west wall. At this time it formed one of a pair of small detached dwellings, of which the other - now known as Mayfield House - was much extended during the late C20; Mayfield Cottage, by contrast, has seen little modern alteration beyond the renewal of some windows and doors.

SOURCES:
Steane, J and Ayres, J, Historical/Archaeological Report on Mayfield Cottage, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, (2010)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Mayfield Cottage, Huntercombe End, Nuffield is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Early date: a vernacular building probably dating from the early C17
* Intactness: extensive survival of original framing as well as stack, ceiling and roof structures
* Rarity: apparently a little-altered example of a single-cell cottage, a rare survival from this period

Reasons for Listing

Yes uphold BPN and list at Grade II.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26674774

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)