Description

OSWESTRY RURAL

1602/4/200 PENTRE-ISAF
15-MAY-86 PENTRE-ISAF

GV II*
Farmhouse with C15 and C17 ranges in L-plan arrangement.

EXTERIOR: The older hall range lies E-W parallel to the track past the complex. It is stone-walled with some fragmentary square panelling with brick infill and incorporates what was probably a C15 open hall. An added outbuilt chimney stack may date from the time when the range's open hall was ceiled and an upper floor created. West, gable, wall rebuilt in stone in C19.

Set at right-angles and to the E of the older range, running back from the road, is a C17 three-bay stone range with slate roof and a large double ashlar stone chimney rising through the ridge above a large central chimney stack. The N and E walls have been whitewashed. Two storeys with central E-facing doorway and three-light C19 casements. To the W and rear of this block is a later, probably C19, addition, built as a service range. This has an end-stack.

INTERIOR: The former open hall (which has had a quartered timber ceiling inserted across it when the range was made two-storeyed) retains its plank-and-mutin screen at the W, dias, end of the hall. It is particularly well-carpentered; the upright planks are chamfered and finished with lamb's tongue stops c.0.30m above the base which is on a stone sill. Evidence for the fixing of the high seat of the dias remains. At the N end of the screen is a doorway, chamfered and with an ogee-arch to the centre of the doorhead, which is part of the large timber into which the upright planks of the screen are tenoned. The door is original, with six vertical planks shaped to fit the ogee. However, the doorway, which provided access to the room behind, has been blocked (in the ancient past) with planking. Door at S end of screen has possible medieval head above on W side. Aga set in fireplace in centre of N wall. Whether the room to the hall's W was once a solar is unknown. Latterly it was used as a dairy and there is a bacon or cheese storage rack suspended from the ceiling. It has been extended to the N and here the square framing of the original hall wall is revealed with unusual decorative vertical patterning to the exterior, perhaps intended to resemble pebbles or ropework. Upstairs, above the position of the dias screen, the timber framing continues in the form of a substantial square-framed partition which has tie-and-collar-beam construction with pegged angle-braces to either corner. A king-strut and two queen-struts appear to rise to the collar beam. The lower sections of the principal rafters are visible. A collar beam and V-strut visible above the inserted ceiling; the roof appears to be a perhaps C19 replacement but only very partial view possible. The room above the hall has a crude stone fireplace in the north wall. A doorway through the framed partition leads to a C20 bathroom above the W, end, room.

The C17 range has a lobby-entrance plan. The staircase and 'best parlour' are to the right (N). The latter has a C19 iron grate. To the left is what was in the C19 and C20 a kitchen/living room but would have originally been termed the 'houseplace'; this has a Coalbrookdale range (stamped with Coalbrookdale as well as the supplier's name: E. Thomas & Co. of Oswestry) incorporated in the stack. The former service range to the W of the kitchen has a stone sink, washing copper and bake-oven. From this access to a C20 lavatory in lobby behind the stack. The simple C19 staircase upwards from the lobby divides, to give access to the men's room (for the living-in farm labourers) over the service range (there also being access to the men's room via a ladder and trap door from the service room itself) as well as to the family bedrooms off a landing. In this part of the house there are two bedrooms, the main one with a C18 fireplace with an eared or 'lugged' surround.

HISTORY: None known. Typically such farm buildings were built by the owner-occupier or tenant, if by the latter with the acquiescence of the landlord. The name translates as 'Lower Homestead', in contradistinction to the nearby Pentre Uchaf ('Upper Homestead').

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: The farmhouse at Pentre Isaf is listed, for the following principal reasons:
* as an example of a Marcher vernacular farmhouse which clearly exhibits evidence of several discrete phases: C15, C17 and C19, which reflect changing lifestyles
* for the surviving elements of its C15 open hall, notably the dias end screen
* because it retains its accompanying vernacular farm buildings, some of which are independently listed
* as an important component of the local agricultural and cultural landscape

Listing NGR: SJ2380926011

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17539403

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)