History

Late C16/early C17 two-unit, lobby-entry house; extended to three units in C18 and perhaps C19, then recently modernised and altered at rear. The additional bay at the right has been restored from mid-C20 use as a garage.

Exterior

A house of a single storey and attic, in square-framed half timbering three panels high, lying north-east to south-west on an almost flat site. Three windows at front (south-east), the left and centre bays being the original part and the right hand bay with the broader window being the C18 extension. Steeply pitched roof in thick regular slates with tiled ridge and with gabled dormers to the front; central red-brick chimney stack, partly rebuilt in Ruabon or similar bricks. Modern small-pane casement windows, those to ground storey having bracket timber hoods. Modern boarded door opposite chimney. The plinth is painted to imply that the main studs of the framing are continued down to the ground. Rendered gable ends.

At rear there is a wing at left, timber-framed in late manner and with small-pane metal-framed windows; this is said to have been a buttery. (Beneath the present floor screed there is said to be cobble paving in sunburst pattern.) There is a larger but shorter modern-fronted rear kitchen wing at right, with lean-to conservatory and a middle section between the wings which is roofed in lean-to form.

Interior

Square-framed partitions with lath and plaster panels and stop-chamfered beams throughout; boarded doors and wide floor boards. Entrance is by a lobby in which there is with fine post and panel work against the side of the main chimney. The chimney heats the hall (to left) and the parlour (to right).

The fireplace surround in the hall retains its bressummer and right post; the bressummer and post are chamfered, with roll-moulded ogee stops. The bressummer has been reduced at the left, probably when the staircase was altered. In the original rear wall is another principal feature of this room - an exceptional example of an unglazed two-light diamond-mullioned window (with possible marks of a former shutter on the exterior side). Former rear wall of the house is exposed within the kitchen wing. Against this wall are multiple timber brackets perhaps for support of the wing ceiling, perhaps retained from window and door hoods.

The parlour has similar detail, including a massive cross beam; the well-preserved right wall was the gable end of the original house. Formerly service rooms to rear; this space probably also included the original position of the foot of the stairs, perhaps with the flight rising from the north-east (as opposed to rising from the south-west as today).

The attic storey is ceiled at collar level. The original roof structure is retained including diagonal queen posts and straight windbraces; the wall-posts are thickened below the joint with the beams. The dormers to the two main rooms have pegged ridges in a sub-medieval manner suggesting that they are original. These rooms also have fine timber-framed and brick-nogged chimneys. The one over the hall has no fireplace and is almost pyramidal in shape (it may never have had an opening if this was the secondary bedroom). In the room over the parlour the shape of the chimney is more gently tapered and it is heavily rendered; square-headed bressummer to the opening. This upper fireplace retains a C19 cast iron grate of Coalbrookdale pattern.

The enclosed main staircase has been altered with much difficulty and ingenuity from its original form, but it retains much of its sub-medieval timber and detail including a deeply chamfered newel with pointed finial. Part of it is a hanging structure. At the half-landing there is a passage along the rear giving access to the bedrooms over the parlour and C18 extension (this is an C18 or C19 manner whereas originally access would have been through one room to the other as can be seen by the doorway between the two bedrooms of the original house). The passage formed by this later arrangement steps up to the original floor height to enter the second bedroom and then down again beyond. Low doorway into the C18 extension.

The additional C18 bay at far right also has stop-chamfered beams but with smaller chamfers. There was formerly a fireplace in the rear wall with a timber bressummer; this does not survive, but in the end wall a large bread oven (projecting considerably to the exterior) has been retained. To the rear of this additional bay is the later, timber-framed, service range, now internally lined in concrete blockwork. Notches in the underside of the wing purlins suggest there was formerly an enclosed passage between the main range and this wing, leading to the north-east of the house where the domestic well was situated. Evidence of a doorway suggests this end was lofted.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for the special interest of its exceptionally well preserved interior making it a good example of a storeyed sub-medieval Montgomeryshire house of baffle-entry plan type.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29487581

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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