Cottage and attached boundary wall. The wall is of c.1640 with some reused Roman and medieval
fabric. The cottage is of early (19 date with a mid-C19 rear extension. The wall is of brick with some
reused Roman bricks, tufa and medieval Caen stone to the plinth. The cottage is of two storeys, the
front of red brick with some grey headers, the left side tile-hung to the first floor and painted brick
to the ground floor. The tiled roof is hipped to the front and gabled to the rear and the side elevation
has a partially projecting brick chimneystack.
PLAN: The cottage is one room deep with three rooms to each floor with a half-winder staircase
behind a partition to the east.
EXTERIOR: The front elevation has a 12-pane sash window in a moulded architrave to the first floor
and a 16-pane sash window with cambered head lining to the ground floor. The brickwork to the left
of the door has been renewed. There is a right-side simple cambered doorcase with late C20 door
with four flush panels replacing an earlier door with glazed upper panels. An C18 or early C19
boundary stone embedded in the wall immediately to the right of the door indicates the former
boundary between St Margaret's and St Mary Bredin parishes. The rear elevation has a casement
window to each floor. There is a projecting one storey mid-C19 rear extension of brick, painted to
the south east, with slate roof and brick chimneystack. Embedded in the cottage and forming the
boundary wall to No 13 to the south east is a wall of c.1640, originally part of the garden wall to No
16 Watling Street. It stands about nine feet high and is built of two-inch brick on a plinth of reused
Caen stone, tufa and some Roman brick. It has the remains of a chamfered corbelled brick coping
supported on dentil bricks and a blocked doorway with a simple semi-circular arched head.
INTERIOR: The cottage is approached through a lobby with a half-glazed door. The front room has
one wall with original dado-panelling and others with beaded plank dado panelling. A ledged plank
door leads to the rear ground floor room which retains an original wooden fireplace and original
dado panelling. There is a half-winder staircase to the west built into a wooden partition with ledged
and plank access door and two built-in cupboards. The upper floor retains three ledged plank doors
with old hinges and built-in cupboards.
HISTORY: The boundary wall was built as part of the detached garden wall to Sir John Mann's house
at No 16 Watling Street. Sections of Roman walls were excavated nearby in the 1980s which may be
the source of the reused Roman material. The cottage may have originated as a groom's cottage to
16 Watling Street and was once qlled Groom's Cottage. At a later stage it is thought to have been
the cottage to a market gard\!l'I. and a greenhouse is shown nearby on the 1878 Ordnance Survey
map.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Of special interest as a substantially intact early C19 brick and
tilehung cottage retaining multi-paned sash windows, and with the additional the historic interest of
a parish boundary stone embedded in the front wall. The interior retains the original plan form with
original joinery, which includes a half-winder staircase built in to a wooden partition incorporating
an access door and two cupboard doors, a number of ledged plank doors with original hinges, dado
panelling and a fireplace. It is built into a pre-existing c.1640 section of a garden wall, originally to 16
Watling Street, which is also listed for its special interest as a good quality section of early brick
garden wall with a blocked entrance, which retains some reused Roman bricks and tufa and medieval
Caen stone in the plinth.

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.