TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST BIRD-IN-HAND STREET, OLD GROOMBRIDGE 16/450 Nos 3 and 4 (formerly listed as 20.10.54 Pair of Cottages immediately south of The Forge) GV II* 2 cottages, built as one house. Probably mid/late C17 with minor C19 and C20 alterations. Weatherboarded timber frame on coursed sandstone footings; brick stacks and chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof. Plan: Pair of cottages facing north east. No 3 to left (south east) has a 2- room plan. The left end room is unheated and the right room has an axial stack backing onto No 4. No 4 has a one-room plan with a right (north west) end stack. Both cottages have service rooms in rear outshots. The 2 cottages have evidently been made by subdividing a mid/late C17 3-room lobby entrance plan house. Originally there was only the axial stack serving the centre room (the right end stack is a late, probably C19, addition). The winder stair to rear of the stack (now belonging to No 4) is probably the original staircase. The house was clearly built before the adjoining building, Nos 1 and 2 (q.v.), since there are blocked windows from the cellar upwards in the left (south east) end wall blocked by the adjoining house. This pair of cottages is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace with a cellar below the left end (No 3) and secondary lean-to outshots to rear. Exterior: Irregular front fenestration with 4 ground floor windows and 2 first floor windows, mostly C19 and C20 casements containing diamond panes of leaded glass. However some of the frames are original, e.g. first floor window over the centre room has flat faced mullion with shallow internal ogee moulding. 2 similar front doorways up flights of stone steps. Both have C19 plank doors under shallow flat hoods with moulded edges on shaped timber brackets. It is a tall house and has a tall and steeply-pitched roof, hipped both ends, and containing 2 front hip-roofed dormer windows. Interior: The original C17 carpentry is well-preserved. Wall framing of relatively large scantling timbers with curving tension braces. End rooms have plain axial joists whilst the main central room has a moulded axial beam. The fireplace to the central room is blocked but its brick sides and back show in a cupboard and it has a chamfered oak lintel. Roof of tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins. The downhill (left) end wall appears to contain blocked windows on each floor, the cellar one still containing a grille of slender diamond mullions. Nos 3 and 4 are a very good and well-preserved modest C17 house and they form part of the exceptional group of listed buildings associated with Groombridge Place (q.v.) in Old Groombridge. Listing NGR: TQ5297937698