Claygates March 2010

Claygates was listed by English Heritage in August 1983 as Grade II, of special interest. They dated the cottage to the 17th century. It is built of colourwashed roughcast over a timber frame and has a thatched roof. It was built in the classic two-room plan  on each floor with two storeys.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed as to its rateable value. Chawston was assessed in 1927. The valuer visiting Claygates [DV1/C197/113] found it owned by the executors of J. Wilkerson, of Chawston Manor, and occupied by W. Keightley who paid rent of 2/6 per week. This might sugegst that the cottage was built by the Lords of the Manor of Chawston, the Hunt family from at least 1414 until at least 1705.

The cottage comprised a living room and kitchen downstairs with two bedrooms above. The valuer noted that the bedrooms lay in the roof but that the roof was high.