Old Cottage

This four-bay medieval hall house was built around 1445 and later became home to a family of weavers. 

This Grade II listed building is a four-bay medieval house with a two-bay open hall centre. Dates of the internal timbers vary, making dendrochronology difficult. Some timbers record a felling date of 1355/1356, but in the end the date specified for house is given as 1445. The south bay shows new timbers – c.1562/1563 - so there was possibly a rebuild.  There is also a hidden room in the loft, which could have been a priest’s hole.

The Old Cottage is situated between the tentering green  - where woven cloth was tethered to dry -   and an  old water mill, suggesting that early residents here were probably clothiers.

From Saxon times until the early 19th century, this part of West Horsley was known as ‘The Grove.’ Tax lists from 1200 show a Ralph de Grove, and in 1300, a descendant Ralph ate Grove was resident here. A family named ‘Hill’ lived in the house in 1596 when the house was called ‘Hills by the Grove.’ 

In 1657, the copyhold was owned by a property owner Thomas Dandy. The collapse of the wool trade during the Civil War caused poverty in the village, and like many other larger houses in the area, The Old Cottage was divided into two dwellings, and later, in the 19th century, three small cottages.  It was painted by Helen Allingham, who painted many cottages in Surrey between 1878-1881. There was a famous exhibition of her Surrey cottages in 1881.