1 and 3 Vicarage Lane

Summary

Pair of semi-detached cottages of around 1700 (possibly originating as a single dwelling). C19 and C20 additions to the rear and side.

Reasons for Designation

1 and 3 Vicarage Lane, Hale, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* as a small domestic building of around 1700 with later alterations, retaining its principal rooms either side of a large central stack and much of its structural envelope, including brick walls with cogged eaves course and floor frames with chamfered and stopped girding beams;
* for interior features including a probable smoking loft within the central stack, joinery of several C17 or C18 phases and associated ironmongery.

Historic interest:

* as an example of a modest, brick house of the late C17 or early C18 house, later occupied as three small cottages, reflecting changing patterns of occupation in the C19 and C20.

History

Based on visible fabric, 1 and 3 Vicarage Lane, Upper Hale probably date to the late C17 or early C18. Although now a pair of semi-detached cottages, the building may have originated as a single three-bay dwelling with a large central stack between the east and central bays.

The Tithe map and apportionment for Farnham parish of 1840 identify the building as a single holding, described as a cottage and land. It is situated in an area known as Hungry Hill on the south edge of Law Day House Common, amongst a mixture of small private holdings and plots identified as encroachments. It is possible that 1 and 3 Vicarage Lane too originated as common land encroachment, later rebuilt and formalised as a private holding.

By the later C19, Ordnance Survey maps indicate the house being occupied as three dwellings. By the mid-1930s the western-most bay had been removed, leaving the central and eastern bay as the two surviving dwellings.

Both cottages have rear wings of different form and character. The wing to the east may be a remodelling or enlarging of an early or original wing; that to the west is probably of C19 date. A single-storey side extension to the west dates from the later C20.

Details

Pair of semi-detached cottages of around 1700 (possibly originating as a single dwelling). C19 and C20 additions to the rear and side.

MATERIALS: brick construction, 3 Vicarage Lane has been painted, 1 Vicarage Lane has been rendered; the roof is covered in clay tiles. Windows are mainly steel-framed casements.

PLAN: a pair of two-storey semi-detached cottages, each being of one principal room per floor, served by a large shared central stack. The roof is half-hipped to the east and gable-ended to the west. Both cottages have a full-width service wing to the rear.

The rear wing to 1 Vicarage Lane has two storeys under a half-hipped roof. A stair runs parallel against the back wall of the front room. The rear wing to 3 Vicarage Lane is lower and shallower and under a gabled roof. A stair runs at right-angles to the back wall of the front room. 3 Vicarage Lane has a C20 single-storey flat-roofed extension along its west flank wall.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation of the building faces south and comprises a near symmetrical arrangement of two ground floor windows and two first floor windows beneath a cogged eaves cornice. The window openings show evidence of alteration. 1 Vicarage Lane (to the east) has a door to the far right of the elevation and has been rendered. 3 Vicarage Lane (to the west) is painted and the brickwork shows evidence of a blocked doorway to the far left of the elevation. The large central ridge stack has been rebuilt above the ridge and has four pots.

The rear elevation is formed of the two irregular wings. Windows are casements, variously of timber or steel and each cottage has a side or rear entrance
with half-glazed timber doors (early C21 date). The building’s L-shaped footprint is made square by an open-sided lean-to roof.

INTERIOR: each cottage has a principal ground floor room with large hearth and exposed/partially exposed ceiling frame. The ceiling frames comprise a principal chamfered and stopped beam running front to back and joists running east to west (the joists are ceiled in no. 1). The fireplace opening in 1 Vicarage Lane is segmental, supported on a flat iron lintel. Within the chimney is what appears to be a smoking chamber with iron bars for suspending food. The fireplace opening in 3 Vicarage Lane has a curved timber bressummer.

Joinery throughout both houses its of varying date but 1 Vicarage Lane in particular appears to contain joinery of probable C18 date, including plank doors with forged strap hinges.

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