Source/Archive record SEM8346 - Survey at Myrtle Cottage, Porlock

The building was surveyed by the SANHS Building Research Group (Exmoor and West Somerset). The building has a three room plan with cross passage, with a stair turret to one side of the cross passage at the rear. The front elevation includes a lateral stack featuring two fire badges and an inscription (ano dm 1604). Internally, several beams have deep chamfers (one known to have scroll stops) and there is a bread oven in the main fireplace, which has burn marks on the timber bressumer across the opening. The large doorway is constructed of two planks and has other features suggesting it has a date of the 17th Century. More recent alterations and repairs have obscured any older timbers in the roofspace. The layout and features of the property suggest a house of the early 1600s. The building was subject to a fire in 1903. It was in use as a tea room, bed and breakfast and garage in 1931. The west gable of the house was a large show room window.