Trivor Farmhouse (aka Tre-Ivor), Llangattock-Vibon-Avel, Monmouthshire

History

Seat of the lesser-gentry James family, Roman Catholics, from the early C17 to the early C18, the building probably begun by John James Esq. or his son Walter James Esq. Probably begun c.1630 and completed c.1690. Reputed to have been used as a Mass centre during the C17, the attic serving as a chapel. The property was purchased by the Rolls family in 1845, becoming part of the Hendre estate, and then sold by the estate in 1922.

Exterior

A tall and imposing house of strongly massed architectural character, with a very large and highly unusual porch-cum-stair-turret and 2 massive stacks each topped with a cluster of 6 diagonal chimneys. It is built of sandstone rubble with roofs partly small stone slate and partly blue slate, and chimney shafts apparently of C19 red brick. The plan centres on a 2-unit, 2½-storey hall-and-parlour range on a NE-SW axis facing SE, the parlour being at the NE end and the porch-stair-turret overlapping the junction, where it rises above the eaves. Continuing to the SW of the hall on the same axis is a 1-unit kitchen range and to the rear of the parlour is a 1-unit wing, both these being of 2 lower storeys; and attached to the rear of the kitchen range is a parallel service range added in the C19. Fox and Raglan suggest that the hall block with its porch wing was built c.1630 "together with one wall of the rest of the L-shaped design", when building ceased abruptly, and that the parlour with its rear wing, and the kitchen, were completed c.1690; but internal evidence suggests a more complicated sequence of building and rebuilding.
The SE façade is dominated by the porch-stair-turret, which has a square-headed outer doorway in the centre with an oak doorcase, one small 2-light wooden mullioned window on each of 3 levels above, all offset to the left and the topmost in the gable; similar windows on 4 levels of the left side (the 3rd of 3 lights), and on 3 levels of the right-hand side (the topmost with 3 lights); and a brick chimney on the gable. Left of the porch the hall has a wooden mullion-and-transom window of 6 lights, with brick voussoirs, the chamber above has a 5-light mullioned window with a wooden lintel, both these with ovolo mullions and diamond leaded glazing; and at the left gable a massive, extruded chimney stack breaking through the roof of the lower kitchen range, topped by clustered brick shafts. The kitchen range has a doorway with a gabled wooden canopy and a board door, one small segmental-headed 2-light casement on each floor to the left, and a brick chimney on the gable. Right of the porch there is one window on each of 3 levels, the first 2 being restored cross-windows in openings of late-C17 character, with segmental heads and rubble voussoirs, and the topmost a C19 6-pane fixed window; and at ground-level is a cellar doorway. At the SW gable-end of the kitchen range is a large flight of steps up to a loft doorway. At the rear the hall-range has a doorway at the junction with the rear wing, with a pegged oak doorcase, a restored 3-light window to the right, a 2-light casement above the door (both these with segmental brick heads) and a square window to the attic with modern glazing. To the left is the wing to the rear of the parlour, which has a doorway in the angle and a restored cross-window on each floor to the left, while its NW gable wall has a 4-light wooden mullion window at ground floor, and a small 2-light attic window in the gable. At the junction of the wing with the main range another massive chimney stack breaks through the roof, with diagonal shafts like those on the other one. Overlapping and breaking forwards at the SW corner is the C19 service range, which has 2 windows on each floor (2 and 1 lights at ground floor, 2 and 2 above).

Interior

The hall has a stone flagged floor and 4 broad lateral ceiling beams with 2 orders of Renaissance-style moulding on the sides; a large square fireplace at the SW end, a former doorway to its left now blocked up and a new doorway inserted to its right; an external doorway at the N end of its rear wall and a C17 cupboard to the left of this; coupled doorways to the porch and staircase (both with C19 doorcases and doors); and, at the NE end, stud-and-plank partitioning which is neither full-width nor full-height: it extends from the front wall to approximately 1m short of the rear wall and terminates in a rail approximately 300cm below ceiling level. A C19 doorway and door offset right of centre in this partition leads to the parlour, which has 3 axial beams, chamfered but otherwise of indifferent quality; a deep stone chimney breast against the rear wall; a pegged oak doorway to the right of the chimney, with a slightly arched lintel, opening into a recess which now forms a lobby to the rear wing (by a recently inserted doorway) but perhaps formerly contained the foot of a spiral stair. Some C17 wall panelling now in this room is ex situ. In the ground-floor room of the rear wing, backing onto the chimney breast in the parlour, is a fireplace with widely spaced stone jambs, showing that there was formerly a very large fireplace in this room.
The stair-turret contains a full-height framed newel staircase, the well a vertical void (closed except for a doorway at 1st-floor level). To the left on the 1st landing is a doorway to the chamber over the hall, which has a strongly shaped arched lintel with a pair of rolls at the apex; to the right, a recessed lobby in the right-hand side of which is a segmentally arched doorway to the other chamber. The chamber over the hall has 4 lateral beams with decoration like those below; some evidence of a former arched fireplace at the SW end (with a recently-inserted fireplace within it); and, in the W corner of the NE end, a C17 doorway with a shaped lintel like that of the main doorway but less emphatic, and a board door on strap hinges: this opens into a small lobby which now gives access to the rear wing by a doorway broken through the rear wall, but it was probably formerly either a closet or a garderobe. At 2nd-floor level, a large attic above the hall (said to have been used for Catholic worship) has 2 principal-rafter roof trusses which appear to date from the C18 or early C19, with bolted half-lapped collars; at the NE end, a plastered studwork partition with a niche; and, crossing over the NE corner, a wooden bridge linking the top floor of the stair-turret with the attics to the rear. In the other attic (which has a broken ceiling), the rear of the partition to the main attic includes a principal-rafter truss at a lower level than the present roof, which at this point is carried by struts mounted on top of it - although otherwise similar to the roof of the main attic. In the roof space over the rear wing the exposed back of the rear-wall chimney stack shows the outline of a formerly lower and more steeply pitched roof, and this evidence that the present rear wing has replaced a formerly smaller wing is confirmed by the foot of a principal-rafter trapped at the rear of the stack, which is exposed in the recess to the left of the stack in the second attic. (Such evidence strongly suggests that Fox and Raglan's interpretation of the main phases of building needs to be revised.)

Reasons for Listing

Included as an important C17 vernacular house of strong architectural character and unusual plan, retaining original detail both externally and internally.

External Links

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