Cripplegate Cottage

A 16^th Century two-bay timber framed house, extended in modern times.

Cripplegate is a Grade II listed building which was originally a two-bay timber-framed transitional house dating from around 1550, complete with a smoke-hood. For most of its life this was quite a small house with two upstairs rooms and two downstairs rooms. However, extensions in the modern era mean it is now a significantly larger property.

In her book ‘Old Houses in West Horsley’ local historian Pam Bowley speculates about the unusual name of this house, which is in an isolated location at the end of Silkmore Lane. Today the house lies all alone on the northern side of the railway line, which opened in 1885, but in medieval times this would still have been a lonely place, separate from the main settlement at that time.

Pam Bowley suggests the house name might originally have been ‘Creeplegate’, which actually refers to a V shaped hole in a fence or wall which allows access for humans but not farm animals – implying that this building probably functioned as a farmhouse during medieval times.

LOCATION: The last house in Silkmore Lane on the east side immediately after the railway bridge. NB: There is limited visibility of this house from the public right of way.