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Monument details

HER Number:TQ 74 SE 253
Type of record:Listed Building
Name:Stream Cottage, Cranbrook

Summary

Cottage probably C16, re-fronted in the C18.


Grid Reference:TQ 7777 4004
Map Sheet:TQ74SE
Parish:CRANBROOK, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT

Monument Types

  • TIMBER FRAMED HOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1600 AD? to 2050 AD (between))
Protected Status:Listed Building (II) 1429398: Stream Cottage

Full description

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List entry Description:

Summary of Building
Cottage probably C16, re-fronted in the C18.

Reasons for Designation
Stream Cottage, a C16 cottage re-fronted in the C18, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons. * Architectural interest: a C16 timber-framed cottage concealed behind C18 brickwork, weatherboarding and tile-hanging; * Interior features: include a C16 open fireplace and roll-moulded ceiling beams, a C18 half-winder staircase and ledged plank doors; * Degree of survival: the original two bay plan form with outshot is readable, the C16 wall frame and tapering chimneystack is exposed on the upper floor and an C18 or earlier roof structures may survive; * Group value: it is attached to Roadside Cottage, listed at Grade II, and appears to have been part of the same property in the C19. Both properties may have formerly been the mill house to Paley Mill.

History
This property appears to date from the later C16. Window openings on the north east side have been blocked by Roadside Cottage which may originally have been a built-on later parlour wing.

Buildings in this position appear to be shown on Mudge's one inch Ordnance Survey Map of 1801. The cottage is certainly shown on the 1870 First Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map together with the adjoining cottage Roadside Cottage and at this date no division is shown between the two properties. On this map an adjoining separate building which adjoins the stream and mill pond is Paley Mill, a corn mill, and it is probable that Stream Cottage and the adjoining property, Roadside Cottage were originally the mill house. The corn mill is still shown on the 1898 second Edition Ordnance Survey map but had been demolished by the 1908 edition.

Details
Cottage probably C16, re-fronted in the C18.

MATERIALS: timber-framed, the ground floor re-fronted in brick, weather-boarded on the north-west side and tile-hung on the south east side. It has a hipped tiled roof with a massive brick chimneystack, which has been rebuilt above ridge level.

PLAN: two storeys and two bays with a catslide outshot to the south-west.

EXTERIOR: the south-east side has a ground floor in English bond brickwork with a tile-hung upper floor and three wooden casement windows.

The north-west side has an English bond brick ground floor and a weather-boarded first floor. The first floor has a C20 metal casement window and the ground floor has two wooden casement windows

The south-west outshot has a fairly random brick bond and the entrance has a moulded architrave with a C20 plank door and a small casement window adjoining it.

INTERIOR: the north-east ground floor room has a massive open fireplace, partially infilled later, with a massive roll-moulded bressumer running north-west to south-east. There is also a roll-moulded cross beam with a barred stop running south-west to north-east, supported on a post.

The north-west ground floor room has visible upright posts, wallplates and a chamfered axial beam.

A half-winder wooden staircase leads to the first floor where the tapering upper part of the chimneystack is visible. The wall frame with jowled corner posts, studs and curved diagonal braces is exposed on the north-west, north-east, south-east and south-west walls, and the north-east wall appears to have an original blocked window opening, probably filled in when the adjoining property, Roadside Cottage, was built. There are ledged plank doors and the room over the sitting room has a wooden fireplace bressumer but the fire surround is a brick mid-C20 one.

There was no access into the roof but a section of lath and plaster was visible in one room. (1 AND 2).


<1> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

<2> historic england, 2015, Mill Cottage and Stream Cottage, Cranbrook (Unpublished document). SKE31391.

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref. Source description
<1>Index: Historic England. National Heritage List for England.
<2>Unpublished document: historic england. 2015. Mill Cottage and Stream Cottage, Cranbrook.

Related records

TQ 74 SE 224Parent of: Roadside Cottage, Cranbrook (Listed Building)