Building record 1045000000 - THE WHITE COTTAGE, LITTLE ICKFORD

Grade II. Situated in the grounds of Ickford House. House. Medieval and C17. Cruck framed with timber framing to east. Remainder colourwashed rubblestone and later brick. Thatched roof, half hipped to north end. One storey plus dormers. 3 bays. West elevation has 4 casements and one 2-light eaves dormer. East elevation to rear has 2 doors and 3 casements. Small attic window in north gable, larger window in south gable. Interior: 2 cruck trusses flank centre bay which has C17 inserted stack and is unfloored. South bay has C17 spine beam. RCHM I. 217. MON.10 (B1).
West facing elevation - Divided into 3 almost equally sized bays with 2 stone rubble-coursed bays flanking a later brick-built centre section. Two large casement windows in the brick-built section, the southern most of these blocking a former doorway. A brick-built chimney stack rises above the ridgeline at the point where the brick and stone walls meet. A low single storey flat-roof extension projects out from the south end. North facing elevation - Plain coursed rubble-built gable end beneath the half-hipped end of the thatched roof. A small casement window is located in the apex of the gable. East-facing elevation - Three clear bays which correspond to the bays on the west elevation. The centre bay sits on a stone base which supports a timber sill and box-frame structure. Doorways lead into both of the outer bays. South-facing elevation - The elevation is mostly hidden by the single storey structure which extends beyond the line of the east elevation. Brick-built chimney, no earlier thatn the later 19th century, is built against the gable end but is not part of the cottage. First floor casement window (B2). Only the southern cruck can be seen in its entirety from the centre bay, which has always been open to the roof. Cruck blades are pegged into a collar and do not extend as far as the ridge making a base cruck structure. A number of redundant pegged joints suggest that the cruck blades were originally used elsewhere. The northern cruck is partially obscured by the inserted brick and stone-built internal chimney, likely 17th century or later date, and also supports a collar, instead of meeting at the ridge. Two mezzanine floor rooms one at either end, have been inserted. 2 The southern wall, above the inserted ceiling, is the boarded apex which has been coated in witchert. This appears to be the southern end wall of this bay. Its relatively insubstantial nature suggests that it was not the original end of the cottage and that it may have extended beyond its present limit. North end of the roof is half-hipped, but has a flat gable at the southern end supporting the theory that this end has been modified. The rafters are a variety of sizes. Some are squared and extend from the wall plate to the ridge whilst others are still in the round with bark attached. shorter rafters only stretch from wall plate to purlin, or purlin to ridge. On the inner surface of the rafters are laths. Someare regular sizes suggesting that they are machine cut. Other are irregular suggesting they were hand cut. The laths have generally with witchert. No carpenter's marks were seen on the roof structure. The exception being 2 pairs of setting out mark on the eastern wall plate. A limited programme of dendrochronolgy indicated that one the cruck blades had a probable felling date 1383, possibly the spring or summer. Two collars were identified as coming from the same tree with a felling date of 1585, the same as one of he purlins. The inserted floor beam and some of the joists have a firm date of 1645 (B2).