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Home > Bedfordshire > Diamond End > The Woodman

The Woodman


The Woodman closed in the early 20th century and is now in residential use.

From Historic England:
Woodside Cottage is likely to have been built in the C18 and undergone some reconstruction in the C19. Its timber frame is a hybrid of older and newer elements, including some large, hand-worked elm beams and some light-weight pine studs that have been machine sawn. A small area of smoke blackening in the roof timbers suggests that a fire may have affected the property at some stage and could have been the cause of the changes in its timber frame.
Its earliest discernible form was as a two-storey, two-bay cottage with a central brick chimney stack. It had a half-hipped roof with a catslide over a rear outshut. The first floor of the north and south elevations was weatherboarded. Historically the first floor east elevation was covered in render.
The building first appeared on Ordnance Survey maps in the 1870s.
It operated as a beer house in 1861 and continued to function as a public house into the early C20, known as The Woodman. Its clientele are likely to have reflected the local mix of agricultural labourers and straw plaiters. The pub was managed by the Passell or Pestell family until the 1880s when it was taken on by the Hills. It was owned by the Hertford Brewery in 1910 and managed by Ellis Hill at that date. By 1911, Ellis and his wife Elizabeth had eight children living with them in the house and it was no longer operating as a pub.
By 1939 the building had become known by its present name, Woodside Cottage.
A photograph thought to date from the 1960s shows the building before its major period of alteration. There was a porch at the southern end of the east elevation, and on the north side of the house was a single storey outshut. The first floor of the east elevation was finished in stucco, rather than weatherboard, and was painted to resemble timber framing.
Floor plans from 1978 show the ground floor had a dining room and lounge on either side of the chimney stack, with a kitchen and bathroom in the western outshut. The first floor had four bedrooms.
In 1985 permission was granted for a major campaign of extension, alteration and renewal. A two-storey crosswing was added to the north elevation, replacing an earlier outshut. The plan form was heavily altered, removing the service spaces from the historic part of the building altogether, and relocating the front door into the crosswing. The earlier porch was demolished. Both fireplaces have received a degree of alteration to their jambs and lintels. The south elevation was entirely clad in new fabric. The first floor east elevation was covered in weatherboard, and the walling itself may have been reconstructed in the same area. Much of the original roof structure was retained, but was augmented and strengthened by some additional carpentry. All of the windows were replaced and are of lesser interest, with the exception of two small, square windows on the ground floor west elevation. The ground floor windows of the east elevation have been heavily altered, and no longer reflect the historic arrangement, which can be glimpsed by some surviving closers in the brickwork.
The 1985 crosswing extension is not considered to be of special interest.

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