Pear Tree Cottage, Wymondham Road, Wreningham, Norfolk: A Level 3 Historic Building Record

The exterior and interior elevations of Pear Tree Cottage were photographed on 4th March 2022 using a Canon EOS 800D 24.2 MP DSLR camera fitted with 10-18mm and 18-55mm lenses. Further photographic recording was undertaken on 8th March 2022, when the building was demolished. All images were taken in Canon's .CR2 format and converted to .tiff for archiving purposes. The analysis of the historic fabric of Pear Tree Cottage reported on here indicates that the building complex began as a linked pair of single-storey, timber-framed cottages in the late 17th century, when they were located on the northern side of Wreningham Low Common. During the 18th century, the central chimney stack of the surviving cottage was constructed, creating a typical lobby-entrance plan-form. It would appear that the first floor was inserted at the same time, with the original stairs occupying the space on the opposite side of the fireplace to the entrance. Although the southern cottage has been demolished, it is presumed that this followed the same pattern. In the mid- to late 19th century, the central chimney stack was remodelled to create a partition wall containing a fireplace in the northern ground-floor room, and a kitchen complete with fireplace, hob and oven in the southern room. This remodelling also saw the introduction of a staircase on the lobby side of the chimney and the creation of a larder in the southern part of the southern room. It seems likely that the roof was also replaced, or at least extensively repaired, at this point. As part of the same programme of works, the two-storey annex was constructed to the north-east of the cottage, to which it was joined by connecting ground-floor and first-floor doors. It is likely that there was also a single-storey element to the west of this annex, over which the now-blocked first-floor window looked. In the early 20th century, this single-storey element was rebuilt as a 1 � storey block, again connected to the cottage by a first-floor doorway. Given the known history of the building, it is likely that this 19th-century expansion took place in the 1870s, in the lead up to or following the acquisition of the Wreningham Post Office by Alfred Quantrell, who relocated it to the northernmost building. The construction of this building was probably coincident with the remodelling of the chimney stack and roof of the cottage range noted above, which are likely to have been precipitated by the same event. Quantrell's background as a builder and joiner would also explain the extent and quality of the work in evidence. It also seems that the two outbuildings on the site date from the mid-19th-century expansion, with the northernmost building remaining unaltered ever since and the southernmost building losing its southern half in the early 21st century. The cottage had clearly been derelict for some time and, following the demolition of the building to the south, had become structurally unstable. All of the buildings reported on here were demolished in March 2022 ahead of the redevelopment of the site as two new dwellings.