Listed Building record MDO5451 - Hart's Cottage, Brog Street, Sleight, Corfe Mullen

An early seventeenth century cob cottage, extended and altered in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The building has a half-hipped thatch roof, with an eyebrow dormer, extended to a lower eaves on posts at the rear.

SY 98479836. Hart's Cottage, built in the late 16th or early 17th century is single storeyed with attics and has cob walls and thatched roofs. In the early to mid 19th century, an open pentice was added on the north, and the west end was refaced in brick. On the east side a store was also added. <1>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 1, 103 (Monograph). SDO148.

'(8) HART'S COTTAGE, house (984983), of one storey and attics, has cob walls and thatched roofs (Plate 93). It was built late in the 16th or early in the 17th century and remains remarkably intact. An open pentice has been added on the N., the W. end refaced in brick and a store added on the E., all in the early to mid 19th century. Alterations inside are described below. Exceptionally in Dorset, the original timber door and window-frames survive unaltered in the N. wall. (Modernised since survey).

The plan comprises a through passage slightly W. of centre with the main room, the hall, to the E. and smaller, service, rooms to the W.; the original partitions survive, in part retaining their wattle-and-daub panels, except between the service rooms where the head-beam and sill alone remain. The N. doorway to the passage retains the original timber frame with a cambered head and continuous chamfered jambs; the door-way to the hall is similar, but the doorways to the service rooms have been destroyed though the housings for the destroyed heads show above the modern doorways. In the hall, the N. window is original, consisting of two lights with a chamfered timber frame and mullion and a vertical iron bar set diagonally in each light. Against the end wall is a large fireplace with a rough lintel, an oven on the N. and a copper on the S., all in early 19th-century brickwork. Originally the staircase was S. of the fireplace and lit by a small window, which survives though with a renewed frame; the present staircase was inserted in the 18th century. The hall has exposed chamfered ceiling beams without stops. The N. service room is lit by an original window similar to that already described; the S. service room was converted in the mid 19th century into a small parlour by the insertion of a fireplace.

Upstairs, the original division into two rooms has been preserved and changes are minor. The doorway with a cambered head in the partition is original. In the 17th century a ceiling supported by a chamfered joist with moulded stops was inserted in the E. room; similarly the ceiling in the W. room is inserted, probably under a collar beam. The principal rafters being exposed below.'

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457199 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 7 2024 3:17PM