History

An early C17 house shown in its original form on the 1742 map of Maes Mynon demesne when it comprised a single N-S range. This survives but later in the C18 a new N front was added, in which form it is shown on the 1849 Tithe map. An integral part of this enlargement was the heightening of the original house. Subsequent additions included a lean-to dairy on the E side of the earlier house, and a granary on the W side of the C18 front (which also provided accommodation for farm workers), all of which is shown on the 1871 Ordnance Survey.

Maes-y-Coed was the birthplace of the clergyman and scholar John Wynne (1667-1743). He was Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, bishop of St Asaph and then Bath & Wells, and resided at Soughton Hall in Northop from 1732.

Exterior

The N-facing house comprises a symmetrical 5-bay C18 entrance range of 2 storeys with attic, with lower single-bay granary to the R side. Behind to the centre of the C18 range is the C17 house, which has lean-tos on both sides. The entrance range is whitened roughcast with slate roof behind coped gables and brick end stacks. It has a central doorway with moulded surround and a panelled reveal to a fielded-panel door and small-pane overlight. The near-flush windows are 12-pane hornless sashes. The lower granary to the R has a horned sash window in a gablet. The whitened rubble-stone rear wing has a massive external stone stack in its coped gable end with 3 brick flues. On the E side is a lean-to (originally a dairy) of rubble stone with bigger quoins and 2 inserted windows, while in its S end wall is a boarded door under a segmental head. On the W side of the rear wing is a late C19 margin-lit sash window lower R below a small-pane sash window in a brick surround to the upper storey. A lean-to in the angle of the main range has a window to the R with wooden louvres, and inserted window to the L, and is abutted by a wall concealing an oil tank. Its S wall has a boarded door under a segmental head. Above the lean-to the C17 house has a 2-light casement. The former granary attached to the entrance range has, in the S wall, external stone steps, which incorporate a kennel beneath them, to a boarded door beneath the eaves. Its W gable end has double boarded doors to the R under a segmental head, a single stable door to the L and a small loft window, all with keyed heads and voussoirs.

Interior

The rear wing retains doorways to the entrance range in the lower and upper storeys, both of which have 2 orders of ovolo moulding. Otherwise the main internal details are C18 and includes doors with 2 and 6 fielded panels. The C18 N range has cross beams with run-out stops. Two- and 6-panel doors are retained, some with wrought-iron hinges. The close-string stair is in the rear wing. A C17 open-well attic stair, partly dismantled, has ornate fret-cut balusters, and was possibly moved here when the original house was heightened and the original stair replaced. The roof has C18 collar-beam trusses.

Reasons for Listing

Listed grade II* as an especially fine and well-preserved C18 farmhouse with substantial earlier rear wing, which with the adjacent agricultural range comprises a complete farm group in a prominent location near the bottom of Caerwys Hill.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q17742892

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)