Shepherds Cottage

Shepherds Cottage is a house, now divided into two dwellings, dating from the first half of the 16th century. It began as a two-bay house, one bay being an open hall, and was extended in the late 16th century with a jettied eastern part (now No. 9). A later 17th-century western end and a large chimney were added, incorporating a floor in the hall and a staircase beside the stack. The house is timber-framed with red brick infill, and has steep red tiled roofs, half-hipped at the western end. It is a long, two-storey block facing north, with the eastern part slightly higher. No. 8 has irregular window placement, with three windows to each floor, and a gabled porch to the door on the eastern side of the central windows. It features flush sliding Yorkshire casement windows with lattice leaded glazing. A small stair window is located in line with the internal stack, positioned roughly one third from the western end. No. 9 has a continuous side-jetty and prominent windows: one four-light window to each floor and a three-light window above the entrance baffle, near the large chimney at the eastern end. The medieval section of the house retains heavy timbers and flat joists to the storeyed eastern bay. It also features reverse-curved braces to the upper part of the front wall, an original framed partition with a curved tension brace (now concealed from the hall), swept-jowled posts, and a clasped purlin roof structure with wind-braces. The timbers are of large, squarish section. The floor over the hall has plain joists, but the western end extension has well-finished chamfered joists with run-out stops.