| Description | 89, Westgate Hill Street, Tong (SE 20851 29547). Single storey stone built cottage. 18th or 19th century.
89, Westgate Hill Street, Tong was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Lucy Caffyn in 1982 as part of the WYAAS/RCHME Workers' Housing Survey. The photographic images and sketch produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Caffyn, L. (WYAS/RCHME). 1982). The fieldwork report is transcribed below:
'Single storey.
This cottage which faces east, was at one point, a shop, hence the window in the south gable 'to sell tobacco to the miners' (Newmarket Pit 100 yards away). There is a story of someone being shot through it in Cromwell’s time... Said to be of 17th century date (maybe it was, it was a farm).
It is built of stone, with a stone roof. The pitch is shallow so probably always a stone roof. There is a tie beam in the living room; there are four purlins in the roof space, which rest on the gable and the dividing wall. A ridge pole rests on the walls and on the light crossbeam (between the principal rafters). The rafters are supported by the purlins and the ridge pole and the cross over at the apex. The roof timbers are only roughly shaped, but are not too spindly. The partition wall (between the living room and the bedroom) is of brick, and extends up to the roof (to act as a supporting wall?).
The windows were splayed on the inside.
There are two rooms entry straight into the living room; and there was a small outshut scullery, which had stone shelves. The living room ceiling is 2.51m and the outshut at its height is 2.12m high.
There were hooks in the purlins, which run through the living room; this may indicate livestock/farming concern.
Further up Westgate Hill Street, no.87 (SE 20732 29562), there is a two roomed stone, single storey cottage; with both rooms heated, by end fireplaces.
Number 85 (SE 20619 29550) is a single storey cottage, again of two rooms, both heated, probably associated with the farm (it forms one side of the farm yard)'.
(Caffyn, L. (WYAS/RCHME). 1982. '89, Westgate Hill Street, Tong').
It is possible that the cottage was constructed in the late 18th to early 19th century by mine workers at the nearby Newmarket Pit.
The grid reference given is for the position of 89, Westgate Hill Street as depicted on current mapping (OS Master Map. 2011). There is some discrepancy between the photographic image provided by Caffyn and the current plan and position. The plan appears to have been extended to the east and west. The central section of this new plan corresponds with a building that was depicted here in 1894 (OS 25' 1st edition). Also, in the photograph, the cottage is situated adjacent to the road. This is no longer the case with no.89 depicted on current mapping. There was a building adjacent to the road in this location up to at least 1948 but with a different alignment (OS 6' 4th edition. Sheet 217). |