Shelly House

Shelly House is a house from the mid-17th century that was modernised in 1986. It is built of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with a stone rubble stack featuring a granite chimney shaft, and a thatch roof, although the rear has a corrugated asbestos covering. The house has a two-room plan and faces south, with an axial stack that serves back-to-back fireplaces between the rooms and a front lobby entrance on the side of the stack. It has two storeys and includes 20th-century service outshots at the rear.

The exterior features an irregular three-window front with late 19th to early 20th century horned four-pane sash windows. The central doorway has a 20th-century part-glazed door. The roof is hipped on the left side and runs continuously with the adjoining house, Shelly Cottage.

Inside, both fireplaces are blocked, but each room has an unstopped ovolo-moulded crossbeam. The roof structure consists of A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars and shaped halvings. According to the owners, Shelly House was a tailor's workshop in the 19th century. South Zeal is notable for being one of the few medieval boroughs where a significant number of its 16th and 17th-century houses still exist.