The Cottage, Edingthorpe Green, Bacton, Norfolk

Summary

Cottage, built around 1700, extended in the early C18 and altered in the C19.

Description

Cottage, built around 1700, extended in the early C18 and altered in the C19.

MATERIALS: the cottages have a pantile roof covering, red-brick chimneystacks, and red-brick and flint walls, partially rendered.

PLAN: the pair of semi-detached cottages form a rectangular-plan building, laid out on a roughly east-west axis, the eastern cottage and outshot built around 1700 and extended with the addition of the western cottage and outshot in the early C18. Projecting rectangular-plan stores were added to the east and west ends in the C19.

EXTERIOR: the two-storey semi-detached cottages have a pitched pantile roof with a continuous catslide roof over single-storey outshots to the rear (north). The east (earliest) cottage has a chimneystack on its east gable and former west gable; the west cottage has a chimneystack on its west gable (partially demolished). The two-storey front (south) elevation is smooth rendered with stepped brickwork to the eaves. The eastern cottage has a central door on its front elevation, flanked on either side by a single window to both the ground and first floor. The western cottage has a blocked doorway on its front elevation, with a single window to the west on both the ground and first floor. Both cottages have segmental-headed door and window openings, containing timber casements and window furniture of mixed date. The east gable wall is rendered and constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a shaped brick plinth, and the west gable wall is constructed of coursed flint with red brick quoins. To the rear (north) the outshot spans the full width of the cottages and has straight-headed doors and windows with timber casements. The outshot of the eastern cottage has a small chimney stack at its eastern end, and a central doorway on the rear elevation flanked by windows (that to the west partially blocked) – the upper courses of brickwork are fletton bricks. The outshot to the western cottage has a central doorway with flanking windows; it is divided from the eastern cottage by a firewall and is separately roofed. The single-storey stores to the east and west gables each have a mono-pitch roof covered in pantiles laid on straw, with red brick stretcher-bond walls. Between the eastern store and the eastern end of the outshot, is a mid-C20 store with a shallow mono-pitch corrugated iron roof and walls.

INTERIOR: the front door of the eastern cottage, built around 1700, leads to a living room which contains: a C19 inserted beam; a central fireplace on the eastern wall with mid-C20 surround; an adjacent smoking chamber in the north-eastern corner complete with wooden doors and one early C18 butterfly hinge; and a stair door in the south-eastern corner to a winder staircase, with an understairs cupboard below. To the north of the living room, in the outshot, is a kitchen – the eastern wall is taken up by a narrow C19 range, bread oven and copper complete with pan. A second pantry is accessed via the western wall of the kitchen and was originally a single larger pantry subdivided by a stud wall in the C19, resulting in the partial blocking of the window in the rear wall. A change in wall thickness suggests that the upper section of the rear wall of the eastern outshot was rebuilt or raised in the C19. To the west of the living room is a second reception room with a tiled floor, and a central fireplace on the west wall flanked by built-in cupboards. The outshot to the north contains another pantry with a tiled floor and a shaped brick plinth to the western wall. The first floor of the eastern cottage contains two bedrooms: the main bedroom is accessed directly from the winder staircase, with a second bedroom to the west (later subdivided to provide a small second bedroom to both the east and west cottages). The roof is ceiled at collar level; the lower section of a principal truss is visible in the main bedroom, as well as an additional C19 truss, and there is a blocked opening at the eastern end of the rear wall. The western cottage, built in the early C18, contains a living room on the ground floor, two bedrooms on the first floor, and a kitchen and pantry in the rear outshot. The living room contains: a fireplace on the centre of the western wall within a mid-C20 surround; a built-in cupboard in the north-western corner; and a winder staircase in the south-western corner, accessed via a stair door with an understairs cupboard below. To the north of the living room, the kitchen contains a narrow C19 range, bread oven and copper complete with pan on its western wall. A door in the east wall of the kitchen provides access to a pantry. The first floor of the western cottage was inaccessible due to the condition of the stairs and the upper floor. Most doors and cupboard doors in both cottages are simple plank doors with early-C18 door furniture including strap hinges, door handles and latches.

History

The cottage at Edingthorpe Green was most likely constructed with an outshot around 1700, and extended with an attached cottage and outshot in the early C18. The semi-detached cottages are shown on the Inclosure map of 1812 and the Tithe map of around 1840 as a rectangular-plan building aligned roughly east-west on a triangular-shaped plot at the junction of The Street and North Walsham Road. The 1884 Ordnance Survey (OS) map shows the pair of cottages, each L-shaped in plan with stores on their side (east and west) elevations; the eastern (earlier) cottage is shown to be larger than the western cottage. The 1884 OS also shows a small detached outhouse to the rear. A detached garage was constructed to the east of the cottages in the mid-C20, and is shown on the 1970 OS map. Census records indicate the cottage was occupied by generations of the same family from at least the C19 to the early C21.

Reasons for Listing

The Cottage, Edingthorpe Green, built around 1700, extended in the early C18 and altered in the C19, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for its vernacular construction utilising locally-sourced flint and red brick, exhibiting local distinctiveness in its materials and craftsmanship;
* for the high proportion of survival of the early-C18 plan form which, with the exception of minor additions in the C19, escaped modernisation in the C20 and remains largely unaltered;
* for the rare survival of a number of early-C18 fixtures and fittings, as well as C19 ranges complete with coppers.

Historic interest:
* these are unusually complete cottages which largely escaped modernisation in the C20 and their range of interesting interior survivals allows us a better understanding of, and rarely seen glimpse into, the rural way of life in north Norfolk.

External Links

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