From the drawings it may be supposed that Sir Francis Baring wished to provide decent housing with good-sized plots that, with wells and sheds, allowed his tenants to grow their own vegetables and fruit and perhaps keep chickens and pigs too. Well-spaced out and with a fair-sized front garden and a very generous back garden, the two-up, two-down semi-detached cottages face the village street. Dance's use of a double cottage plan reduced building costs and also gives an impression of greater consequence.

The double cottage with lean-tos was not, by 1806, a new idea. John Wood the Younger published variant designs for a two-storey double cottage with a lean-to on either side in A Series of plans for cottages or habitations of the labourer (plates dated 1 January 1781, new edition, 1792, plates VIII and IX). H. Rosenau (1947) notes the resemblance though proportions, materials and planning vary. Wood's book does not appear among those listed in Dance's library. Nor does John Plaw's Ferme Ornée (1795) which included designs for double cottages including one with lean-tos. Dance did have a copy of James Malton's An Essay on British cottage architecture (1798) in which lean-tos appear in several designs for single cottages and include, depending on status, a piggery or a kitchen and stair or a drawing room.

Five of the nine pairs of cottages shown on the general plan were built and are externally little changed; one of the wells survives and there is an original three-bay shed. They are thatched, with English bond brickwork bearing traces of whitewash.

The unusual horizontal sliding casements which are vertical in proportion are still in use for ground and first floor windows. Sometimes called 'Yorkshire sashes' they were apparently invented in the 17th century. David Brock, English Heritage (email, 15 November 2002) suggests that the East Stratton examples are likely to be the original windows since 'they are so uniform, have mostly reamy glass and look much painted'. He comments that they are 'technically easier and therefore cheaper to make than their vertical counterparts. It is true they are not very common and this could be due to problems of decay - the bottom sash groove must hold water rather well.'

LITERATURE. Stroud p.203; Kalman pp.163-4, 352 n.23; H. Rosenau ('George Dance the Younger', Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 3rd series, LIV, 1947, pp.502-3, 507).

Group

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