17
Dec
A cottage that gave refuge to royalists
This wonderful piece of history has been successfully sold by
auctioneer and Mayfair Office member, Dudley Singleton of Dudley
Singleton & Daughter, Pangbourne, on 8 December 2010 at
Pangbourne Village Hall - £210,000
Situated within the
historic (medieval) core of the old village of Purley (Purley
Parva), which was recorded in the Domesday Book and therefore has
late Saxon origins, Jasmine Cottage was constructed in the 1600s
and it is recorded in West Berkshire Historic Environment Record
Notes that ‘a sword, musket and horse skeleton’ were
found in the gardens of a 17th century cottage in the
1960s.
This pretty, semi
detached period cottage, in need of renovation, has been sold,
together with a valuable planning permission for extension.
The property shows fine examples of exposed beams, inglenook
fireplaces and a cellar beneath the floor of the dining room is
understood to have been used in the Civil War to harbour escaping
Royalists with a tunnel leading down to Mapledurham Lock.
There is a house lying adjacent, which also harboured Royalists and
it is understood the tunnels linked. Archaeologists
discovered a skeleton of a buried horse in full battle armour
nearby understood to have belonged to a murdered Cromwellian
soldier. This part of Purley is steeped in history.
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