Pickards Cottage is another authentic three-bay building, similar in outline to Stang End. It had been largely rebuilt in the late 18th century, and further modified during the 19th century. Some classic features of the traditional ‘long house’ are obvious, cruck frame, opposing doors, a fire window, and a thatched roof.
Development
New features emerge, however, as soon as we move around inside this cottage. For example, there is now a proper wooden floor for upstairs bedrooms; what we would all recognise as being a staircase (not just a ladder) steep, but manageable; Yorkshire sash windows and, praise be, no provision at all for keeping livestock in the house. The fireplace arrangement on its own is a revelation.
There is only one cruck frame here, and that means, unlike all three other dwellings discussed so far, the retaining walls at Pickards are load bearing in here to some degree.
The cottage was originally known as Prospect House, then, for more obvious reasons, simply the White Cottage. It was given to the museum in 1973
