Shepherd'S Court

Shepherd's Court is a pair of cottages that were originally one house, located in Merton. The building features rendered cob and rubble walls with a gable-ended thatch roof, which is partly slate at the rear. There is a brick stack at the axial point and another at the right gable end. Currently, the structure consists of two one-room cottages with rear additions. Originally, it was a single house with two rooms, including a hall on the left side, likely with a stack backing onto a passage, and a lower room on the right heated by a gable end fireplace. The outshut at the back is probably from the 18th century, while a 19th-century wing was added behind the left side, likely when the house was divided.

The exterior is two storeys high with an asymmetrical front featuring four windows. The upper floor has late 19th-century two-light casements, while the ground floor has mid-20th-century casements, including a three-light window to the left of centre and a two-light window to the right. There are two 19th-century plank doors, one to the left and another with a glazed panel to the right of centre. To the left of the right door is a rectangular oven projection with a slate lean-to roof, and there is a 19th-century slate-roofed wing behind the left end. The rear of the right side has a thatched roof outshut.

Inside, the left-hand cottage features an open fireplace with a high chamfered wooden lintel resting on a wooden corbel to the left, and an oven built into the right side. The roof trusses are likely from the 19th century, while features in the right-hand cottage are mostly concealed.