TR 04 SE MERSHAM HINXHILL ROAD (north side) 4/124 Gains Cottage 27.11.57 II House. C16 or earlier, clad C16/C17. Timber framed and clad with red brick in irregular Header and English bond, with weatherboarding to first floor. Plain tiled roof. Possibly an aisled hall house in origin. Two storeys on ragstone plinth with hipped roof with clustered moulded and filleted stack to end right, and large free standing stack to rear left with rebuilt diamond-set flues. Two wooden casements and glazing bar sash to right on 1st floor and 2 tripartite glazing bar sashes on ground floor. Central door of 6 raised and fielded panels, the top 2 glazed, with segmental head. Panelled door to end right. Weatherboarded outshot to left with boarded door on left return, reached by flight of steps. Interior: beaded moulded and hollow chamfered doorways, particularly at head of newel stair in outshot (four centred arched door with fernleaf spandrels to stair head) with stop-chamfered wall plate in same area, and boarded doors with strap hinges. Ovolo moulded mullioned windows to rear. Moulded wainscotting to upper corridor. Large kitchen inglenook with bake oven attached. Exposed close-studding within entrance porch, originally external wall of hall. All the decorative features are C16/C17 (including the stacks) and may mask the extension of an earlier building, especially with an outshot, but the size and nature of the internal frame suggests this may be an adaptation of an earlier aisled hall. Listing NGR: TR0617141184