Description

ST 63 SW WEST BRADLEY ALFORD

572/11/10004 Keeper's Cottage

II

House. Circa late C15/early C16, remodelled and extended circa late C16/early C17; extended
circa early C19. Coursed blue lias rubble. Double Roman clay tile roof with stone-coped gable ends. Stone rubble axial and gable-end stacks.
PLAN: Probably originally a 3-room and through-passage plan house, the low end to the left [W] heated from a large gable-end fireplace, and the hall open to the roof. Remodelled circa late C16/early C17, floor inserted into hall, inner room partition probably removed, and a wing built at the rear of the high end incorporating a winder staircase rising from the parlour. In about the early C19 the main range was extended at the low [W] end. creating a very long range overall. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5-window range. C20 3-light casements. first floor left windows break the eaves; through-passage doorway to right of centre with plank door; another plank door to left. Large C20 windows in west gable end. At rear [N]. various small casements. through-passage doorway to left of centre and gable-ended wing on left with C17 wooden 2-light ovolo-moulded window on east side.
INTERIOR: Through-passage has plank-and-muntin screen on high side with scratch-mouldings and 2-panel moulded door; plastered stud wall on low side. Kitchen at west end has deeply chamfered cross-beam with bar stops. unchamfered joists and large stone fireplace with slightly cambered chamfered timber bressumer with notched apex; oven and small cupboard to side with scratch-moulded plank door. Parlour at west end with large stone fireplace with moulded stone jambs and later arch. and deeply chamfered cross-beams. one stopped with cyma stop at partition to staircase. Wide newel stairs with chamfered doorframe with cranked head and wooden treads at top. Doorway to higher end chamber with ovolo-moulded frame. Chamber over parlour has deeply chamfered axial beams and stone tablet in chimney-breast carved: AD 1583 SW. and with double-headed eagle carved on it. Roof structure reconstructed. but one Medieval smoke-blackened truss remains. with large diagonally-set ridgepiece and some smoke-blackened common-rafters. Rear wing has circa late C16 or early C17 roof trusses with diagonally-set ridgepiece and tenoned purlins, one re-used from Medieval roof; closed truss with wattle-and-daub infilling at junction with main range.

Listing NGR: ST6003032590

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26347711

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)