CLIFF COTTAGE, Woolton Hill Road.
1 & 2 vernacular
3 Architect - unidentified

First Section - c.1810/20?
A little low two storey stone cottage set with the gable end to the road (and far from 'square' on plan) and a low-pitched slate roof; characteristic of the Regency date we suggest. The low 3-light stone mullioned casement windows, hammer-dressed Woolton stone and sturdy quoins are common features of the type of small scale vernacular building that was erected hereabouts. The window in the gable is of later date.

Second Section - say c.1825?
The first building was small, approx. 20 ft by 15 ft; soon an additional 8 ft or so was added - beyond the chimney stack and quoins - in similar stone and with a 2-light window. The four flues to the brick chimney, on reflection, seem more than might be expected for so small a cottage and are explained when we find that some 15 ft below floor level, in the quarry, there is a chamber cut in the living rock - no doubt first serving as a quarrymen's shelter, later embellished as a summer house with romantic detail in plasterwork; and this includes a fireplace. This second section is about 15 ins thinner than the first cottage, possibly because quarrying had cut away the rock below.

Addition of 1888-9
This was made at the south end, roughly doubling the area of the house, and built in much larger-scale work with greater floor to ceiling heights. Here the stone is tooled rather more carefully, the slate roof is a steeper pitch and the copings on the new gables are finished with carefully designed kneelers. The windows in the gable have stone mullions but are altogether bigger and the upper one is set under a label finished with Gothic leaflets. The front door, in a 4-centred arch opening, is partly in the main block of the addition. On the other, quarry, side there is a picturesque angular oriel window with lead roof, lozenges adorning the dado and casement windows affording a peep towards Woolton Hill Road. The chimney stack is panelled and the whole addition characteristic of the later 1880s in contrast to the earlier part and is 'polite' - i.e. designed by an architect. (A later lean-to addition further south is of post-war construction as is the stone lean-to by the road.)

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