The Great Transformation Part 3

The last part of the Great Transformation of Woolverstone Park was the accommodation for workers on the estate and the model dairy. Pairs of cottages, “double-dwellers”, for workers had been constructed on the estate in the 1830s. Nos. 3 and 4 are good examples. The use of red brickwork became a common thread, typified by simple detailing and the use of glazed pantiles on hipped roofs. Nos. 3 and 4 were likely built for farm workers at Home Farm which is also of 1830s heritage.

From 1869, more pairs of cottages were built along the High Road. Some existing cottages were altered to fit in with the design brief; one and a half-storeys in height, built of soft Suffolk red rick, often with white brick used for string coursing and detail, usually with clay plaintile roofs. Each with a porch and decorative, gabled elevations. They had two bedrooms. The new cottages had a large garden of nearly one third of an acre, room to grow vegetables and to keep a pig. They had access to water from a well close by. Front gardens were usually kept with flowers. Most had a washhouse complete with “copper” boiler and a “closet” behind. Allotments were available, most behind the village school. The estate accommodation was described as: “models of inward comfort as well as of outward form.”

“Double-dweller” cottages on the Main Road – 1937

At the Freston end of the village was the Agent’s House, accommodation for the estate land agent, larger and more generous accommodation with four bedrooms.