The Cottage

Oak Cottage and The Cottage Built late C16 as a 3-unit house, the inner rooms forming Oak Cottage, the outer room part of The Cottage. The house was part of the Merthyr Mawr Estate, which was purchased in 1804 by Sir John Nicholl. Nicholl subsequently enlarged the houses in the village, often dividing them into 2 or more dwellings. At Oak Cottage and The Cottage the original house was extended (The Cottage), at the same time as which the earlier house was raised from one-and-half to 2 storeys. Probably 3 dwellings in C19 but now 2.

A pair of 2-storey houses, the earlier walls of rubble stone, the later rendered, mostly painted white, with slate roofs. Oak Cottage is at the downhill end, has a slightly lower roof line and stone stacks R and L. Its 2-window front has an inserted doorway R of centre, possibly an enlargement of an earlier window, and a 3-light casement to its L. In the upper storey are similar casements. The Cottage has, at its R end, the doorway to the original house, with segmental head and stone stop-chamfer surround. To its L is a segmental-headed window added earlier C19 with a replaced casement. Above are two 2-light casements in the heightened wall. To the L of the original end of the house is an added lean-to, beyond which is a long facade with a C19 Tudor-headed doorway inside a later brick porch, with hornless small-pane sash windows under shallow C19 segmental heads to its R and L (horizontal sash to R). Above the porch is a 2-light casement in an earlier opening.

In the downhill gable end is a corbelled 1st-floor stack, beneath which is an inserted casement. The original steeper roof line is visible in the gable end. The rear of the group is rendered and painted white, has a shallow stair turret, and lately inserted windows and lean-tos.

Modernised internally.