Description

1574/8/125

RUYTON XI TOWNS,
Dairy and brewhouse with attached pigsties approximately 50 metres east of Pradoe

(Formerly listed as Former dairy and malt-house with pump and sink approximately 50 metres east of Pradoe)

21-OCT-1987

GV

II

Dairy and brewhouse, with attached pigsties; a museum at the time of inspection (2003). circa 1806 with minor later alterations and late C20 restoration. Uncoursed sandstone rubble, squared and dressed to north gable end of dairy; slate roofs. Dairy linked by part-covered passage to brewhouse on south, with pigsties attached along east side and slaughterhouse in northern bay.

DAIRY: one storey and attic. North gable end has round-arched doorway with nail-studded plank door flanked by segmental-headed C19 casement to right, horizontal sliding sash to left, and central oval window opening to gable. South gable end has segmental-headed leaded casements to ground floor and attic with segmental-headed boarded door to right. West wall has doorway with gable breaking eaves approached by external lateral steps to left of centre and integral corner stack with red brick shaft to right. C19 cast-iron pump in front of south gable end has plain ringed shaft, fluted dome cap with pointed finial and slightly curved handle; cast-iron sink below. Passage linking dairy to brewhouse has stone trough below eaves; segmental-headed doorway to east with stone basins for mixing pig swill to south.

INTERIOR: two-room dairy has stone shelves to north room with C18 and later wall tiles showing rural scenes; stained glass in horizontal sliding sash. Rear room has chamfered ceiling beam and tiled floor. Copper to right rear corner, cheese and butter presses, and churns Wooden stair to loft where roof structure has two pairs of purlins.

BREWHOUSE: one storey with segmental-headed window to centre of west wall.

INTERIOR: open to roof in two bays with central king-post. Two coppers (reinstated late C20), fitted side by side in a continuous bank of brickwork; single flue fitted between the coppers and against the side wall, with two niches providing firebox access at ground floor; timber platform at the level of the copper rim, with renewed late C20 railing, supported on stone block piers. Largely intact are the underworks, the pump ties, coolers and stone cistern.

PIGSTIES and SLAUGHTERHOUSE: to east side of dairy and brewhouse, a single storey range of pigsties under catslide roof, and with stone and brick walls continuing toward farmyard at east enclosing runs. The slaughterhouse advances further and is taller, with gabled roof with pulley beam.

HISTORY: The brewhouse was one of several outbuildings constructed c.1806 by Thomas Kenyon, who had bought Pradoe as a wedding present for his wife, Louisa Charlotte, in 1803. The brewhouse backs onto the pigsties and midden yard and was thus conveniently placed for the disposal of the grains. Tradition says that the rear porch at Pradoe (q.v.) was designed to accommodate callers who would use it to drink their ale or beer allowance. Brewing continued at Pradoe until 1902. The brewhouse was restored a century later, which included the reinstatement of new coppers.

SOURCES: Sambrook, Pamela. Country House Brewing in England 1500-1900. The Hambledon Press, 1996.

Listed as a good example of a c.1806 integrated dairy, brewhouse and pigsty that is complementary to the Grade II* Pradoe including attached service ranges and out-buildings (q.v), the Grade II farm buildings (q.v.), manure sump (q.v.), kitchen garden wall (q.v.), and carpenter's shop (q.v.) and the Grade II Registered landscape, all with which it has group value.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26594123

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.

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