Building record MKE 047 - Stackwood Cottage, Monks Eleigh

Grade-II listed 15th century thatched cottage that is part of an historically important group of three thatched buildings of the 15th and 16th centuries that survive from a medieval green settlement shown on a pictorial map of 1724. The building is an exceptionally well preserved small open-hall house that retains its late-15th century proportions with evidence of an even smaller early-15th century house within. Medieval houses of this scale are much less common than their larger counterparts, and at just 4.4 m square by some 2.4 m in height the original single-bay open hall is one of the smallest in the county (14.5 ft by 14.5 ft by 8 ft). It contained narrow hall windows with only three diamond mullions instead of the usual five and was built with an in-line parlour on the north, but the southern wall of its cross-passage was open-framed against an older service bay or cross-wing. This older structure would have belonged to the previous hall on the site, and was subsequently replaced with the present in-line service bay along with a new cross-passage to increase the length of the open hall. In consequence the present walls contain the exceptional sight of two medieval cross-passages lying side-by-side. In the 17th century a ceiling was inserted into the enlarged hall, with its binding joist penetrating the walls and secured by tusktenons, and a fine fireplace with double-nicked chamfer stops and a good salt recess was built in the cross-passage. The rear windows retain medieval diamond mullions, as do the blocked hall windows to both front and rear, and the internal wall timbers are still heavily encrusted with medieval soot having escaped the usual 20th century stripping. These timbers contain evidence of medieval fixtures and fittings, including a row of double dowel-holes at the bases of the high-end studs which secured a bench. The roof structure of collared rafters is also intact, along with sooted thatch battens and wattle-and-daub (S1).