(formerly Sale Cottage)

Sale Cottage September 2008

Sale Cottage was listed by the former Department of Environment under the description "cottage north of Parish Church of St.Nicholas"; it is Grade II, of special interest. It was built in the late 17th or early 18th century, and, like most of the older houses in the village, is timber-framed; a colour-washed pebbledash render lies over the timber framing. The roof is pantiled. The cottage was built in an L-plan and has a single storey with attics. The Venetian windows seen along the frontage to Sandye Lane are not original features. A single storey wing projects to the east with a weather boarded gable end.

In 1927 Swineshead was valued under the terms of the Rating and Valuation Act 1925; every piece of land and building in the country was assessed to determine the rates to be paid on it. The valuer visiting Sale Cottage [DV1/C151/28] marked in his notebook that it was owned by William Reynolds and occupied by Mrs.Hackett at a rent of £3 per annum, after which the valuer wrote: "Sentimental?"

The cottage stood in 0.30 of an acre and was a simple two room structure with a living room and kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms in the attics above. The original description, later crossed out, described it as roughcast and thatched. Another hand, however, amended the description to read living room, kitchen and scullery with three bedrooms above and constructed of brick, roughcast and tile.

The cottage was revalued in 1941 in another notebook [DV1/X336/30]. The property is, confusingly, described as 1 Wood Lane but as the description mirrors the amended description given in DV1/C151/28 and the two numbers are cross-referenced in both notebooks it seems reasonable to assume this is still Sale Cottage. It was now owned by John Anthony Phipps, whose wife Rachel Ursula had been buying up a number of properties in the village including Moat Farm. She purchased Sale Cottage and 244 acres of land from William Reynolds in September 1939 [CCE5361/3]. The valuer noted: "House has been done up and improved". The valuer further noted: "At present occupied by Harvesters will probably be occupied by one of Phipps' employees on farm".