Pear Tree Cottage

Summary

A vernacular house, built in the C17, extended to the north in the mid-C19 and to the rear in the mid-C20.

Reasons for Designation

Pear Tree Cottage, a vernacular house, built in the C17, extended to the north in the mid-C19 and to the rear in the mid-C20, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the high proportion of survival of its historic timber frame, back-to-back chimneystack and lobby-entry plan form;
* for its construction utilising timber, wattle and daub and thatch, exhibiting local distinctiveness in its form, materials and craftsmanship;
* for the clarity with which its lobby-entry plan can still be understood.

Group value:
* it stands approximately 90 metres north of Old World Cottage, two thatched cottages built around 1600 (listed at Grade II), with which it forms a historic group.

History

Pear Tree Cottage was built in the C17 and was recorded on the Tithe apportionment of 1844 as ‘House and Land’ (Plot 203), owned by Philip Harrold and occupied by himself and others. The cottage is shown on the Tithe plan of the Parish of East Harling in 1846 as a detached rectangular-plan building. It is later shown on the Ordnance Survey (OS) maps published in 1884 and 1905, with a slightly narrower, rectangular plan, two-storey extension attached to the north side (now known as The Last Straw); comparison of the Tithe and OS maps indicates this extension was probably added in the mid-C19. The 1884 OS map shows a path from Garboldisham Road to the centre of Pear Tree Cottage, and a separate path to the north-west corner of the mid-C19 extension.

A black and white photograph of the street, taken from the north-west around 1934, shows Pear Tree Cottage and the mid-C19 extension sharing a continuous thatched roofline, and a single-storey lean-to to the north gable of the mid-C19 extension. The mid-C19 extension (The Last Straw) was entirely rebuilt with concrete breeze-block walls and a pantile roof covering in 1984. A rectangular-plan, single-storey extension was added to the rear of Pear Tree Cottage in the mid-C20, providing a garden room and bathroom, and is shown on the 1981 OS map.

Details

A vernacular house, built in the C17, extended to the north in the mid-C19 and to the rear in the mid-C20.

MATERIALS: The cottage has a thatched roof, timber-framed structure, and rendered walls.

PLAN: The lobby-entry house is rectangular on plan, facing west to Garboldisham Road.

EXTERIOR: Pear Tree Cottage is rectangular on plan and one and half storeys in height, facing west to Garboldisham Road. The pitched roof has a thatch covering with an ornamental block ridge; the east and west wall plates are visible protruding from the south gable under the thatch. The principal (west) elevation is generally three bays wide with a central brick chimneystack and entrance, as is characteristic of a lobby entry plan. The attic has two wall dormers, one to each of the outer bays with a pitched, plain-tile roof. The attic and ground floor windows are flat-arched and contain C20 two-pane, side-hung timber casement windows. The central door opening is flat-arched and contains a four-panelled wooden door. An additional bay (now containing a kitchen) was added to the north end of the principal elevation in the mid-C19; the attached building to the north (The Last Straw, rebuilt in 1984) has a flying freehold of around 1.5 metres over the kitchen of Pear Tree Cottage. Flint infill under the kitchen window indicates it was previously a door opening.

The south gable has a flat-arched window opening at ground floor level containing a fixed window; infill under the window indicates this was previously a door opening. The east part of the plinth was rebuilt with breeze blocks in the late C20.

The rear (east) slope of the roof has a single wall dormer near the north end. A flat-arched door opening near the south end contains a C20 glazed door. A mid-C20, single-storey, rectangular-plan extension was added to the rear elevation in the mid-C20 and has a gently sloping lean-to roof.

INTERIOR: The house retains its lobby-entry plan form with a small lobby inside the front door, and a two-bay room north and south of a substantial chimneybreast. Within the lobby, the wall opposing the entrance (the west side of the chimneybreast) features two round-arched alcoves. The interior side of the door retains L-shaped hinges to its top- and bottom- left corners, a style which is indicative of an early C18 date.
The south room retains a chamfered transverse beam with lamb’s tongue runout stops to its east and west ends, supported by chamfered posts on the east and west walls. The exposed, hand sawn joists are chamfered with runout stops; the joists over the fireplace appear to have replaced in the C20 on a like-for-like basis. The sill plate is exposed in parts, however the plinth is concealed by cement render applied over wire mesh in the late C20. The floor is of poured concrete. The fireplace is concealed by a secondary fireplace applied in the late C20. East and west of the fireplace are timber ledged and battened doors to a cupboard and the porch. Within the cupboard, the east side of the original chimneybreast is visible, as well as the underside of the narrow historic stair with sloping bearers, and a diagonal brace on the east wall.

The north room also retains a chamfered transverse beam with lamb’s tongue runout stops to the east and west ends; the north-east corner of the beam has been shaved to accommodate a later door opening. The fireplace retains a substantial bressumer, however the fire opening has been infilled and a secondary fireplace applied in the late C20. Sections of walling are exposed to show reed infill held by vertical laths. The north bay has a C20 partition to a kitchen in the mid-C19 extension to the north; the attached building to the north, rebuilt in 1984, has a flying freehold over the north part of the kitchen. The first-floor floorboards of Pear Tree Cottage are visible in the south part of the kitchen ceiling. The north wall of the north room has a four-light casement window and door opening to the mid-C20 garden room and bathroom extension; the north-east corner post of the cottage is visible in the bathroom.

From the south-east corner of the north room, a stair rises along the east side of the chimneybreast to a first-floor landing, off which there is a large bedroom to the south, and a corridor to two smaller bedrooms to the north-east and north-west. The timber-framed structure is exposed, with timber-pegged wall plates visible on the east and west walls and tie beams visible on the north and south gables. Each of the bedrooms has a timber ledged and battened door and wide floorboards.

Sources

Websites
Tuck DB Postcards, 'Garboldisham Road', accessed 21 March 2025 from https://www.tuckdbpostcards.org/items/30072-garboldisham-road/picture/1

Other
1846 Tithe plan of the Parish of East Harling
1884 and 1905 25" Ordnance Survey maps of Norfolk (Sheet CIV.1)

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