The Gate House

Nowadays the Gate House is often referred to as the Pink House and is one long residence.  This series of pictures show that, like many houses of its period, it was a several cottages which have been merges into one.

To be honest dating this photograph has proved to be a head-scratcher.  It's my guess that this is oldest of the set and was taken about 1910.  Looking west along Station the two cottages on the right form the basis what we know as the Gate House today. To the left of these is the Post Office (today called Black Penny cottage) and then you can see the apex of the public house The Royal Oak.

In this second photograph the cottage right-most in the first picture looks to have extended and so my assumption is that it's taken later. Of course it is possible the right-most cottage in the second photo fell down that this is an earlier photograph.  Having said that there were a series of photographs taken in 1931 and so this may be part of them.  But is the childrens' style of clothing of an earlier period?

In this photograph taken in 2020 the former Royal Oak and Post Office buildings look just the same as in the earlier photographers.  Whilst the basic shape of the Gate House is similar in all three, it does seem to have change a lot of the years.

Gamekeeper's Cottage

Looking west along Station Road in ca.1931 the Gamekeeper's Cottage is on the right, adjacent to Dullingham House at Old Maid's corner.  The wall on the left is in front of Chestnut Cottage.  Several children are looking towards the photographer who was standing in the road, no doubt in the safe knowledge that he or she would not be run down.

The same view in December 2023 shows that the Gamekeeper's cottage has been extended although the original building is clearly still discernible.  The wall on the left in front of Chestnut Cottage is now much lower and has been replaced by a lovely woven wooden fence.  The road, as modern times seem to indicate, is potholed in multiple places.

A view of the cottage taken in 1984.

Source: Dullingham Collection

Chestnut Cottage, Old Maid's Corner

Chestnut Cottage stands adjacent to Old Maid’s Corner.  The high wall seen in the Gamekeeper’s cottage pictures is now much lower.  

This photo was taken in 1971 and features Tim Piper cutting the grass. At this time the building comprised two dwelling and had three doors.  Tim lived in the left hand cottage and was the Dullingham road-man who kept all the footpaths clean.

The date for this photograph is uncertain but given the set it appears with in the Dullingham Archives it was likely to have been taken in 1974.  Certainly it was after the 1971 photo above as a flue/vent now emerges through the thatch and, with the removal of one of the front doors, is now a single dwelling. 

 Taken from the same spot but in 2023, 52 years after the first of this set.