Shepherd's Cottage, Beer, Devon

 

A Grade II Listed Building, this lovely, quirky cottage was originally a range of two cottages previously called 2 - 3, Shepherd's Cottage. Built circa c17th/18th, it was later converted to just one rambling dwelling in the 19th century.

Built with stone rubble it is partly plastered and white-washed with a traditional thatched roof. The roof has hipped and half-hipped ends with eyebrow eaves, which as the name suggests has an overhang to protect the walls from the weather, and is often seen above windows in thatching. In the photo below there's one above the door and its side windows, which is wonderfully fairy-tale.

Because it was originally two cottages it has an asymetrical U-shaped plan with a projecting wing on each side. The casement windows are 19th century and the fab porches are modern additions.

Above can be seen one of the village stream conduit heads outside the gate, which can be read about in an article here.

A wing extension was built to the rear, seen below with the small garden, and the stone chimney stacks have been extended with brick.

The cottage is owned by a friend and her husband and she has a collection of teapots on her kitchen windowsill with a round table near to the window. One day I was waiting for the bus opposite when some people came along and peered through the window and one of them tried the door. She called to the others 'it must be closed', thinking it was a cafe. When I told my friend later she said that often happens with visitors to the village, lol.  

A wrought iron gate with lots of curlicues...aka twiddly bits. ;) And a final view from down the road.

Just a short article this time. I apologise for some of the photos not being very clear. I did think of going to Beer to take more but I wanted to try and get this published in August, which didn't quite happen.

Anyway, it's September and the start of Autumn; my favourite month & season, so this is a good start. And, I finally found out that what was wrong with me all year, and getting worse, was Vitamin D deficiency. After taking tablets for the last two weeks I feel incredibly much better and with more energy than I've had for a long time, so hopefully I'll be getting more done...once I've caught up with everything I didn't do!

Have a happy Autumn everyone. :)