The Cottage

The Cottage, built in the late 16th century, is a pair of two-storey houses originally designed as a three-unit home, with the inner rooms forming Oak Cottage and the outer room part of The Cottage. This property was part of the Merthyr Mawr Estate, purchased in 1804 by Sir John Nicholl, who later enlarged many village houses, often converting them into two or more dwellings. The original house was extended to create The Cottage, and the earlier structure was raised from one-and-a-half to two storeys. It likely functioned as three separate dwellings in the 19th century but is now two.

The earlier walls of the houses are made of rubble stone, while the later sections are rendered and mostly painted white, topped with slate roofs. Oak Cottage, located at the downhill end, features a slightly lower roof line and stone stacks on both the right and left sides. Its front has two windows, with an inserted doorway to the right of centre, possibly an enlargement of an earlier window, and a three-light casement to the left. The upper storey has similar casements. The Cottage has a doorway at its right end that leads to the original house, featuring a segmental head and a stone stop-chamfer surround. To the left is a segmental-headed window added in the early 19th century, with a replaced casement. Above are two two-light casements in the raised wall. To the left of the original end of the house is an added lean-to, followed by a long facade that includes a 19th-century Tudor-headed doorway within a later brick porch. This facade has hornless small-pane sash windows under shallow 19th-century segmental heads on both sides, with a horizontal sash to the right. Above the porch is a two-light casement in an earlier opening.

The downhill gable end features a corbelled first-floor stack, with an inserted casement below it. The original steeper roof line is still visible in the gable end. The rear of the building is rendered and painted white, featuring a shallow stair turret along with recently added windows and lean-tos. The interior has been modernised.