Lower Halstock Cottage Approximately 170 Metres To North North East Of Lower Halstock Farmhouse

Lower Halstock Cottage is a longhouse located approximately 170 metres north-north-east of Lower Halstock Farmhouse. It is probably from the 16th century, although the earliest features that can be dated are from the 17th century. The building has been altered in the 20th century and is constructed of granite rubble walls with a gable-ended corrugated iron roof, which slopes lower over the shippon.

The cottage has a tall axial rendered stone rubble stack with dripcourses and a brick stack at the left gable end. The layout consists of a simple longhouse plan, with the shippon at the lower end on the right, a cross passage, a hall, and an inner room to the left. Originally, the passage was separated from the shippon by only a lower partition and still has no room above it. The hall stack backs onto the passage, and the inner room may have originally been unheated. In the 20th century, a bathroom was added at the rear of the passage.

The building has two storeys over the house and one storey over the shippon on the right. The front features an asymmetrical arrangement of two windows, which are 20th-century two-light casements with glazing bars. The right-hand window on the ground floor has a central light with narrow side lights. There is a wide 19th-century door leading into the shippon to the right of centre, and a 19th-century lean-to in front of the shippon. The central part of the front has a 19th-century lean-to that includes an open-fronted porch, behind which is a wide 20th-century plank door leading to the passage. A wide doorway has been inserted into the shippon to the left, beyond which is a ventilation slit.

Inside, the hall features a blocked granite-framed fireplace with a lintel that appears to be hollow chamfered, along with a chamfered ceiling beam. The shippon retains its central drain, with the drain hole located at the lower end. The roof timbers were replaced in the 19th century. This simple building remains in a traditional form, with the shippon still unconverted and situated virtually on open moorland, indicating that it was originally in a very isolated setting, which still feels fairly remote today.