History

An unimproved forest dweller's cottage of the most humble sort surviving almost unaltered since it was built in the mid C19. The basic cottage has a woodstore added to the west gable and a bakehouse to the east gable, but both of these must have been built soon after the cottage itself. Such a smallholding is probably the direct result of the enclosure of the common lands by the Beaufort Estate in 1810. Under the terms of the Enclosure Act the land was allotted freehold to anyone who could show that they had been using it without paying rent to the Duke of Beaufort for the previous twenty years, in fact since 1790. The rest of the land was then taken by the Duke.

Exterior

The cottage is built of rubble stone, rendered to back and front, with a Welsh slate roof and pantiled roofs to the woodstore and bakehouse. Two cell single depth central direct entry cottage which is lit only from the front elevation. A small gabled porch leads to a plank door. This porch is flanked on the left by a small 2 x 2 pane casement and on the right by a larger 2 x 3 one. Above are two 2 x 2 pane ones. Roof with brick end stacks. To the left gable is a lean-to woodstore and to the right a single storey bakehouse with a door and 2 x 2 window, brick gable stack. The rear elevation is blind. In front of the cottage is a small paved court and a paved path sloping up to the road with flanking stone walls.

Interior

The interior is unaltered apart from the introduction of basic electricity and water supply. There is direct entry to the main ground floor room which retains its small fireplace and boarded ceiling. Matchboard partition to the tiny kitchen with the steep ladder stair in the corner. This leads to two tiny bedrooms with boarded partition and ceiling. Basic A-frame roof boarded at collar level. The windows have cills just above floor level in a wall height of about 1m only. The bakehouse retains its oven with iron door.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a well-preserved mid C19 forest cottage of a type once common in the area but now very rare in its unimproved state.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29501910

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)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)