This cottage was Grade II Listed on 14th May 1986
15 The Green North
The cottage was built in the early 18th Century with a further extension later in the century. Built of coursed clunch rubble with brick dressings and some flint banding. Old plain-tile roof with brick gable stacks. A two-window front with door to right of centre which has a 19th Century open porch. The outbuilding range on the right end has a weatherboarded gable facing the road.
Lower range has stones inscribed “TP1756 and A? 17?6
The house as described above is now two properties 15 & 17 The Green North and may originally have been associated with 11 The Green North given its proximity and form to the substantial listed Blenheim House.
15 & 17 The Green North
In 1946 when the property was included in the sale of the Bousfield Estate it was rented out to artist Charles Flower, who had been a tenant for 39 years with a rent of £35 per annum. For more information on Charles Flower please see https://wandss.org.uk/the-people/charles-edwin-flower/
The entry in the sale catalogue mentions that two upper rooms are now used as Studios and that garden is protected from the road by a box hedge. This hedge was a feature of a painting by Charles Flower.
The Box Hedge by Charles E Flower
The property was not sold at the Auction and No 15 remains the property of descendants of the Bousfield Family while No 17 was sold in 2024.
The article that follows is an extract from a 1993 W&S Society Newsletter and was written by John Robinson in September 1993
No 17 is actually an extension to No 15. The latter was built early in the 18th century and No 17 was added a few years afterwards. There are stones at the lower part of the front wall inscribed TP1756 and A?17?6. The two properties in my memory have been occupied as a single building and two buildings. The communicating door now bricked up was clear to see. The back door – long filled in – would have given access to part of the garden of Blenheim House, as it is now. My great grandfather (E.H. Bousfield) when he lived in Blenheim House, (he called it the Cottage) acquired all the back gardens of the dwellings along what we now call The Green North.
In renovating No17 we discovered a beautiful bread oven, the roof constructed of tile on edge in a geometric patter with pretty brick and tile horizontal courses.
The Bread Oven
What is surprising is that it connects with a similar oven in No 15 which we discovered during a refurbishment some years ago.
There is now a new bedroom in what was the hayloft over the kitchen – the loading aperture clearly visible in the east wall. We found an antiquated but broken pulley in the rafters. How the hayloft was filled is unknown as the cottages next door (19 & 21) are much older. The hay probably came from a field known as The Park, which is now a small wood.
The extension forward was a cart shed and loose box with the manger still in position.
Lastly the roof must have been well constructed as one purlin to the left-hand bedroom has been cut to give access to the dormer window with the other made of yew. That in the old hayloft has 30-degree bend in it where it was obviously cracked years ago. It’s neighbour appearing to be made from the sides of a hay cart as the stave holes are clearly visible
As a child I remember chickens scratching on the dirt kitchen floor.
Compiled by Lynda Raynor
June 2025