History

A hall-house of c1500 with a small later rear wing. The end-bays of the main range were probably of two storeys from the start, with a staircase at each end; but the centre was originally a full-height hall with central hearth and smoke louvre in the roof.

The house retains many features of its mediaeval layout. A fine mid-hall truss is exposed upstairs with traces of the smoke louvre, showing the lateral chimney to be secondary.

Exterior

A house of two storeys in roughly dressed and coursed local limestone, including some very large boulders at the foot of the walls; the masonry at rear is uncoursed. Slate roof. The main range has a generously projecting chimney stack at each end; square chimney shaft set diagonally at the south end, ordinary square stack at the north end. There is also a central lateral stack on the west elevation with square shaft. Smaller square shaft above the rear wing gable. All the shafts are of about 3m or more in height.

The front elevation (to east) has two windows each side of the chimney above and below left, and a door and window below right. The windows are restored with mullions and transoms. The door is vertically boarded externally and has a two-centred stone arch; the stonework of the right jamb is restored in rubble. One dormer window in rear of main range, one in rear wing.

Interior

The entrance is direct to the hall, with the opposite door now leading to a small rear wing, implying a screens passage north of the hall. The bar-holes for the west door (opposite the main entrance) remain. The north and south end bays of the main range are both separated by timber framed cross-walls. Two blocked service doorways are visible to the north, with Tudor heads. There are two doorways in the south wall, one blocked, and mortices of possible dais canopy.

The floor of the room in the south bay is one step higher than the hall, and the room retains early wainscot on the south face of the cross-wall. Wainscot from the hall side has been repositioned in this room.

The hall central truss is exposed upstairs: a high-collar-beam truss with small V struts above and large arched braces; a large roll moulding has been fixed to the soffit of the latter. In the north bay upstairs there is a post and panel partition screening the position of a former staircase.

Reasons for Listing

A very well preserved mediaeval hall house retaining many original features.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q17741800

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

• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)