Shorts Lane Cottage

Shorts Lane Cottage is a house that likely dates back to the early 17th century. It was altered for use as two cottages and later restored in the 20th century as a single dwelling, with some modifications. The building features whitewashed rubble and a slate roof with a central weathered ridge stack that has a shaped top. It has a two-room plan with a central stack that includes back-to-back fireplaces, and there is no evidence of a passage. The entry is to the left room, while the right room has a staircase leading to the rear left.

A single-storey lean-to serves as a porch along the front of the left room. The cottage is two storeys high, with a 20th-century lean-to featuring a corrugated asbestos roof and a door at the front. On the ground floor to the right, there is a two-light window with a timber frame, narrow round-arched lights, originally unglazed but now with glass. A small single-storey lean-to is located at the right end. The right gable end has a 20th-century single-storey lean-to and a two-light casement window on the first floor, with the upper level slate-hung.

The left gable end features an outshut, possibly from the mid to late 17th century, with a corrugated asbestos roof and two 20th-century lights, plus a two-light window to the rear and a two-light casement on the first floor. There is also a small single-storey porch at the angle with the outshut to the right. The rear of the cottage has two 20th-century two-light windows at ground floor level and a small stair light at first floor level.

Inside, the left room has a fireplace with a rough granite lintel and jambs, along with a cloam oven at the rear left. There is a two-centred arched chamfered wooden doorframe leading to the left room, which has a 20th-century fireplace with one remaining granite jamb and chamfered beams. At the rear, a granite newel stair has been extended by two steps, with a similar chamfered wooden doorway remaining, although the jambs have been removed. On the first floor, the rear of the flue is curved for an oven. The unglazed window may represent an archaic survival in this small house. There is no indication that this building was part of a larger structure; it appears to have been constructed as a two-room plan house with direct entry into the left room. When it was used as two houses, a straight stair was built along the front wall of the left room, which has since been removed.