Building record SBT 048 - West Cottage

West Cottage is a timber-framed house of the early-16th century that was considerably altered and extended approximately a century later and neatly illustrates the dramatic changes in English domestic life that occurred over the same period. The original house was floored throughout and contained a single fireplace between its hall and parlour in the latest ‘fashion’ of its day, although in external appearance it resembled a medieval building with tall, unglazed windows that were interrupted by the ceiling; it therefore represents an historically interesting transitional stage between medieval and modern housing. At 33 feet in length by 15½ in overall width the structure was not large even by 16th century standards, and would have been appropriate to an artisan or a husbandman with a respectable but modest holding or`perhaps twenty or thirty acres. Expectations of domestic comfort continued to increase during the Elizabethan and Stuart eras, and saw a major ‘upgrade’ at West Cottage that was funded by a general improvement in agricultural profits. The single fireplace was replaced by a much bigger chimney containing two back-to-back fireplaces that heated the parlour as well as the hall; as space in the parlour was dramatically reduced in consequence the original gable was removed and the house extended by approximately 12 feet to create a larger parlour with a handsomely chamfered new ceiling. At the same time, or perhaps a decade or two later, an extension was added to the opposite end of the house to achieve its present length of 57 feet. The building adopted its present ‘T’ shape with the construction of a central wing of brickwork in the early-19th century, at which time it is understood to have been divided into three labourers’ tenements (S1).