Whispers Cottage, Church Lane, Tydd St Mary, Lincolnshire

On 13th March 2009, OA East conducted a historical building survey at Whispers Cottage, Church Lance in the village of Tydd St Mary, Lincolnshire in advance of alterations scheduled to be made to the former cottage.

This work was carried out in response to a brief issued by Lincolnshire County Councils Historical Environment Officer. The brief required that a historic building survey was carried out on the existing building followed by archaeological monitoring of all groundworks for the construction.

Four main phases of development were identified during the survey; construction of the original one-up -one down, addition of a single storey out-shot to the east, complete replacement of all fenestration and doors and finally addition of a single storey entrance porch. The absence of any original fixtures and fittings makes putting a precise date on the original building very difficult, however, with the aid of cartographic sources available and physical evidence, the earliest phase of building is likely to date to no earlier than the mid-late 18th century and later extended in the 19th century with new windows and doors in the early 20th century and finally the entrance porch addition in the mid-late 20th century.

An archaeological investigation was carried within the footprint of the proposed new dwelling on 14th April 2009. This revealed evidence of a single rubbish pit, dated to the mid 17th/early 18th century and may be a rubbish pit associated with the house.