Rightmove, when 'improvements' make you weep - beautiful period detail hidden under cladding.

[BentFork]

Instantly, I thought there's something not right about the slate cladding on this house, the tile size for starters, it looks conspicuous & inappropriate. Then I got to pic 15 and saw what they're covering up. I was shocked, such a shame.
Rightmove cottage

Could be insulation, sometimes you have to choose between warm or pretty

Maybe it was damaged and needed to be repaired

Like the previous person said, it may have been for insulation.

this may help it get out of band g.

a lot of properties did have slate put on them before the widespread Victorian practise of painting the beams black to protect the wood.

personslly I think it’s beautiful either way.

Ruined. And those horrible orange wood windows.

At least it is only covered rather than destroyed.

The spotlights are unforgivable

The back of my house was rendered - we pulled the render off to expose what we hoped would be lovely original brickwork, and found all kinds of repairs and patches underneath. Now I know why it was rendered!
And guess what? We put the render back on!
It might be the same here; just because you can see a bit of black and white work on one end doesn't mean it's intact (or was ever even present) all the way round.

I think it might be to fix issue with damp?

I think what they are covering up also looks fake too. I don't think the black beams are structural beams, probably the 1970s stick on variety.

The black and white on the end wall doesn't look like beams at all to me, it looks too flat.

That's what I thought - the beams look fake and that's a worse look

I prefer the slate. The non-slated area looks like the paint is flaking which could be an indicator of damp being present. Those "beams" don't look right either.

They looked painted on to me too.