Bank Top Cottage was renovated in 2010 after originally being built sometime in the late 1700's or early 1800's.
Bank Top Cottage was originally three separate rooms, which were shared between the terraced row of fisherman’s cottages that now comprise the South Side area of Cresswell village (previously known as Fisher Row). The rooms were used for very different purposes all throughout their history.
In 2010, as you walked inside the structure from any of the 3 entrances, the walls were covered in old adverts from fishing magazines, aged newspaper articles that were no longer legible, stickers from car magazines and all sorts of personal items that would have been there for decades.
Each of the rooms were filled to the brim with debris; a ton of sea coal and sand, a rusty old bike, a broken external door, an oil tank for oil heating, bricks and lots of dirt. The unstable roof had large holes that allowed daylight and rain to pour through. The joists that held up the attic spaces were thoroughly rotten from years of harsh weathering and the salt in the sea air. In what is now the lounge area of Bank Top Cottage, there was a 2 metre deep pit that was used for mending vehicles.
Within the last 100 years ponies were kept in the area that is now Bank Top's bedroom. The ponies would have been used for retrieving sea coal and molluscs from the beach.
Over the time we’ve had Bank Top Cottage, we’ve talked to people of their memories of the building before the renovation. A favourite is that they used to climb up and play on the roof as children and watch the tides come and go.
We love hearing about the history of Cresswell and welcome anyone who can add to our knowledge of the buildings or it's past residents.
