Great Killough, Llantilio Crossenny, Monmouthshire

History

Great Killough was dated by Fox and Raglan as being of c1600 and 1630 with parlour and stairs wing added c1670; but the house is evidently much earlier with origins as a late medieval house with impressive great open hall, subsequently added to and altered in C17.

Photographs of the W and garden fronts in Bradney's ‘History of Monmouthshire' show that c1906 the house had several C17 wooden mullion windows, including 5 and 6-light mullion and transom windows in S wing. The centre hall had been ‘divided into apartments` and the former open hall was no longer visible.

During the extensive 1960s restoration of Great Killough by architect R de W Aldridge, transverse and axial post and panel partitions on the ground floor of the hall were removed, together with the inserted floor above, to recreate the great medieval hall which is now open from floor to ceiling. At the same time a side gallery and large 3-light window with double transom was inserted in hall, and old wooden mullion windows in the cross wings replaced by stone cavetto mullions. The former cider house was also remodelled to form a modern service wing and kitchen.

In the absence of securely dated buildings, the dating of late-medieval hall-houses in Wales has until recently been speculative. During the 1990s, however, the dendrochronological programme commissioned by the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) in the Welsh Border counties has yielded exact dates on several sites. The relative lateness of the dates is striking, so that for example the 4-bay hall at Tretower Court gave a precise date of 1470 for the cusped collar-beam trusses of the stone-walled great hall.

At Great Kilough, no dendrochronological dating has yet been carried out, but it is likely that the great hall dates from the late C15. The plan of the original hall-house was two-unit, with a great 4-bay hall with a cross-passage at one end, and an additional room - the so-called ‘outer' service room or kitchen - forming a second unit at the passage end. Above this service room was an upper chamber reached directly from the open hall, probably by a ladder stair, which rose to an upper doorway in the timber-framed end-wall. This two-unit hall-house was subsequently revamped c.1600 when a floor was inserted in the open hall, a second upper doorway cut through the timber-framed end-wall of the hall, and a monolithic fireplace inserted in the ground-floor ‘outer' room. Then c1670 the parlour wing was added at the N end to form the present three-unit H-plan house. The plasterwork in the attic of the S wing probably dates from this time.

In C15 Killough was a manor held by William, Earl of Pembroke and shortly afterwards the house was bequeathed his uncle and remained with the family for six generations. During the C17 the house came into the possession of the Powell family, whose pedigree appears in Bradney. In the early C18 it belonged to the Duke of Hamilton, eventually being sold to Thomas Medlycott, the Duke of Beaufort's agent, on whose death in 1738 a fine neo-classical wall monument was erected in the Cillwch Chapel of Llantilio Crossenny Church.

Exterior

Substantial H-plan mansion, comprising medieval hall-house with cross wings, and attached former cider house. Rubble stone with some ashlar dressings; stone tile roof. Stone stacks have bases and diagonally set flues. SE stack has big square base and three flues, stack to NW has rectangular base and four flues. Windows are C20 cavetto moulded stone mullions with rectangular leaded panes. SW entrance front has medieval hall (centre), flanked by three-storey cross wings (to left and right), and two-storey former cider house with hipped roof (far right). Hall has big C20 3-light window with double transom. To right is single-storey gabled porch with Tudor-arched stone doorway with ovolo moulded surround and runout stops, exposed framing to collar truss at gable-head, and C20 boarded double-doors. Inner porch has stop chamfered ceiling beams and similar Tudor arched inner doorway with C20 6-panel door with ornamental strap hinges. Three-storey cross wing to left has 2-light mullion in gable-head, and 3-light mullions on first and ground floors. Three- storey cross wing to right has a 3-light mullion in gable-head, and 4-light mullions on first and ground floors. To right is blocked Tudor-arched doorway and small single light window. The former cider house (now C20 kitchen and service range) is attached at right angles to SE gable of house, forming a long two-storey range which has C20 stone mullion windows. NE garden front is irregular, with hall off-centre to right. Hall, ground floor has chamfered Tudor-arched stone doorway with C20 panelled door (left), and 2-light mullion (right). On first floor is a single-light window and then a late C15, 2-light barred window, formerly a transom. Between hall and cross wing to right, the roof of the house is carried down to form a small projecting outshut with 2-light mullion. Cross wing to right has 2-light mullion in gable-head, two 1-light windows on first floor and a 3-light mullion on ground floor. Cross wing on left has 3-light mullion in gable- head, and 4-light mullions on first and ground floors, with two-storey projecting stair turret (right). Between this block and the kitchen range (far left) are small single-light windows to mural stair on ground and first floors, and also to attic lean-to stair turret.

Interior

The most remarkable feature of Killough is the great 4-bay hall, its fine arch-braced collar truss roof with three tiers of purlins. The cross-passage entrance to the stone-flagged hall is illustrated by a full plate photograph in Peter Smith's Houses of Welsh Countryside (plate 62). The inner jambs of the cross-passage doorways have drawbar holes. The hall transom window contains an ex-situ C16 stained glass panel depicting St George and the Dragon. At N end of hall, the vast projecting chimneystack has a wooden fireplace lintel with cavetto and ovolo moulding, and moulded stone jambs. Along the E side of the hall is a C20 gallery with turned balusters and shaped rail. At S end of the hall the whole of the upper wall is timber framed. The unusually large tie beam truss has two collars and close studded panels, with V-struts above top collar. Below the tie-beam, the upper wall has two tiers of panels, also close studded with mid-rail; side by side in centre are two doorways with Tudor-arched headboards and chamfered door frames with diagonal stops. The lower wall is rubble stone, to a height of about 2m and has plank and batten door with applied fillets and fleur de lys strap hinges (left), leading into the ‘outer room' (present dining room) at the passage end. Ground floor room has chamfered ceiling beams, some with straight cut stops, and fireplace with flat monolithic lintel and monolithic jambs. Next to the entrance door, are winding stone steps in a stair turret (now blocked on first floor). According to tradition, in the attic room known as ‘the chapel', mass was held during the persecution, and a secret fireplace stair is said once to have existed to right of chimney breast. The attic is ceiled at the collar and the purlins and cheeks are plastered, with reed moulding and fine symbolic ornamentation, probably later C17, including pomegranates (emblem of Catharine of Aragon) and a pelican piercing its breast (symbol of Christ's sacrifice on cross). The ground floor of the cross wing to N, has good later C17 decorative plaster ceiling with square fret, angle sprays and encircled rose (centre).

Reasons for Listing

Exceptionally fine late medieval hall-house with C17 cross wings, especially notable for its restored great hall, and surviving evidence of C17 chapel with rare symbolic plasterwork.

External Links

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