Building record 2285/0/13 - St. Peters Cottage

Formerly a row of C18 cottages, now a single dwelling.

{1} Summary of Building
Formerly a row of C18 cottages, now a single dwelling.
Reasons for Designation
St Peter’s Cottage (59-61 Main Street), Aldwincle, is listed for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* the building offers physical evidence of the local vernacular building style in the C18.
Historic interest:
* as evidence of domestic life in a pre-industrial rural community.
History
St Peter’s Cottage is located around 80 metres across Aldwincle’s Main Street from St Peter’s Church (Grade I-listed, National Heritage List for England entry 1040308). The house has its origins as a row of late-C18 cottages and their outbuildings. The layout of the buildings in 2025 is much as appears on the 1886 Ordnance Survey map.
Plans from the 1960s show that the two (then thatch roofed) southern cottages in the row were partly converted to a workshop and store. These end cottages were demolished in the 1970s and rebuilt in the style of a single house (now number 57 Main Street, not covered by this List entry), and thereafter the row became a single dwelling. In the 2020s a scheme of refurbishment and internal re-ordering was carried out where windows and the roof were repaired.
Details
MATERIALS: limestone walls. Chimney stacks are brick, roof coverings are Collyweston stone slate to the cottage roofs, with a mix of Collyweston slate and clay pantiles to the roofs of the rear range. Doors and windows are timber.
PLAN: the main range of cottages is a rectangle orientated with its narrower ends to north-west and south-east (to be referred to as north and south for simplicity). An ancillary range runs to the rear (west) from the north end of the main range.
EXTERIOR: the main range reads as a row of former cottages. They are each of two storeys under adjoining pitched roofs with raised, coped verges and three ridge stacks. The ancillary range is also under a pitched roof with a gable to the west, with this range extending further west under another pitched roof, here under clay tile with a western gable and lower ridge height than the part adjoining the house. The walls are of limestone rubble brought to course, with ashlar stone blocking to quoins and door and window surrounds featuring on the central cottage (number 59) only. The windows are generally C18 timber mullioned casements with rectangular leaded-lights.
The principal elevation faces east to Main Street. No.59 has three bays, the two southern bays each with a four-light casement to ground floor and three-light casement to first floor, then to the northmost bay a six-panel door (internally). To the north is number 61, which is of three bays, comprising a central bay with four panelled door, and flanking bays with a three-light casement to each floor. All openings to number 61 are under shallow timber lintels.
The rear, west elevation has the timber clad gable end of the ancillary range to its north end; this contains a double garage door. Moving south, the west elevation of number 61 has a door and window to ground floor and two windows to its first floor, then further south number 59 has a single ground floor window to its north end, with a sash above that and a C20 casement at first floor to its south end. The rest of the south end of number 59 is obscured by a second ancillary range, which is not covered by this List entry.
The north elevation comprises the gable end of number 61 to the east and attached ancillary range to the west. Number 61’s gable has two windows to ground floor and a single window to the first floor. The ancillary range has a single window to its north side. The stores further west under the ancillary range’s clay tile roof section are solid to this elevation. The ancillary wing has plank doors and casement windows to the part nearer the house, with the western part under the lower clay tile roof having two doors to the south side.
INTERIOR: door and window openings are set in deep reveals demonstrating the thickness of the stone walls. Some C18 and C19 joinery survives, including plank doors, built-in cabinets and shutters. The ground floor of number 59 comprises a large main room with flagstone floor and exposed ceiling beams. The north side of the room has an inserted C19 fireplace to the west, a straight flight of stairs boxed in east of that, and easternmost a passage passing number 59’s blocked door leading to number 61 further north. Number 61’s ground floor consists of two rooms to north and south of a small central entrance hall, which allows exit to Main Street. A blocked staircase is to the rear of this hall. The southern room has an inglenook fireplace with large timber bressummer to its south side, and has a black and red quarry tiled floor. The northern room has red quarry tiles and a smaller fireplace, and a doorway west to the ancillary range. The first room in the ancillary range is brick-floored with a fireplace, and is divided into a bathroom and passage with a further door west leading to more concrete-floored storage rooms. The first of these storage rooms is open to the roof space and has a mezzanine loft space to its southern end. The first floor is arranged with bedrooms and bathrooms to the west of a corridor running along the front of the building. Some studwork is exposed in this corridor where numbers 59 and 61 meet.

{3} Undated photo;

{4} Former list decsription: 3 houses, now one dwelling. Late C18, restored C20. Squared coursed limestone with ashlar dressings and Colleyweston slate roof. Originally 2-unit plan. 2 storeys. 2-window range of leaded casements under gauged stone heads with ashlar dressings. 6-panel door to far right under flat wooden hood. Ashlar gable parapet to left. Brick stacks at ends. Fire insurance plaque above door. Late C18 two-window range to right was a separate house. Leaded casements under wood lintels and central 4-panel door under wood lintel. Ashlar gable parapet and brick stack at ends. 4-window range to left was rebuilt mid C20. Interior: 2-window range to right has open fireplace with bressumer. 2-window range to centre has reset early C19 fireplace with flanking cupboards. Some original stud walls at first floor.

<1> Historic England, 2026, Case Name: St Peter’s Cottage, 57-61 Main Street, Aldwincle, Northamptonshire (Designation Advice Report). SNN117195.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G08 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN41470.

<3> Photographs of buildings in Aldwincle (Photographs). SNN111847.

<4> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 11/20 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

Record last edited

Aug 13 2026 1:16PM