Building record 1170900000 - THE THATCHED COTTAGE/THE HOVEL

Grade II. Cottage. Early C19. Colourwashed render, part with slender timber uprights and plaster infill. Hipped thatch roof, rebuilt brick chimney at left end. L-plan, One storey, 3½ bays. Half-bay to left is slightly set back and has board door. Remainder has irregular paired casements, leaded in left bay, wooden in right bays. Board door between right bays (B4).
Squatter's cottage. Early C19. Two rooms. Colour-washed render, part with slender timber uprights and plaster infill. Walls are wattle-and-daub with some wychert, the roof consists only of small twisted branches lodged on the wall plates supporting a solid hipped thatched roof of twigs and brushwood, rebuilt brick chimney and lobby entry are constructed of earth-fast posts with fork ends which the wall plates rest. L-plan. One storey, 3 1/2 bays. Half-bay to left is slightly set back and has board door. Remainder has irregular paired casements. The primitive construction of the cottage employed virtually no carpentry techniques which leads to support to the tradition that squatters cottages being erected overnight on waste ground. An inscription date of 1811 on a fireplace brick suggests that the sequence of construction may be more complicated (B1-2).
Dendro-dating obtains a felling date of 1812 for a lodged timber. See report (filed) for detailed discussion (B3).