Holly Cottage March 2010

Holly Cottage is an attractive building in the main village. It was listed by English Heritage in August 1983 as Grade II, of special interest. They dated the cottage to the early 19th century. It is built of colourwashed roughcast and has a thatched roof. It is a larger cottage, having a three-room plan downstairs and comprises one storey and attics.

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 Holly Cottage [DV1/C197/105] found it owned by the executors of J. Wilkerson, of Chawston Manor, and occupied by C. Keightley at a rent of 2/6 per week. This suggests that the cottage might have been built by the Lords of the Manor of Chawston - in the early 19th century they were members of the Metcalfe family, who also held the Manor of Roxton.

The cottage comprised a living room and kitchen downstairs with two bedrooms above. A weather-boarded and corrugated iron washhouse stood outside. 

Holly Cottage C. 1906 depicting members of the Keightley family - l to r, Phyllis, Dora, George and Sarah kindly supplied by Maria Screen, 2022