History

C16 and C17 gentry house, now farmhouse. Sited on an outwork of a Norman motte and bailey castle (Scheduled Ancient Monument MM 098) which suggests a long history of habitation. In the 17th century the house was lived in by the Aylworth family. Bradney speculates that this family may have included, under the alias of William Aylesworth (b.1625 Monmouthshire), William Harcourt, one of the Catholics involved in the Titus Oates plot. Certainly, the Aylworth's were recusant Catholics during the C17, John Aylworth refused to take the oath of allegiance to George I. His son, John (d.1726) left the estate to a nephew John Gosling, a cooper of Chepstow. By the C19 part of the Beaufort estate, was sold by the 9th Duke c1900 to the current owners Monmouthshire County Council.
Fox and Raglan suggested that the crosswing was the solar range of a demolished hall replaced by the lower range added on as a kitchen range. The highly ornate timber mouldings place the house in the small group of houses, including Coldbrook and the Old House in this area, of unusually rich carpentry, dated to late C16. The stair at both ends indicates a solar over the parlour, not accessible from the other first floor room.

Exterior

Farmhouse, later C16 crosswing with early C17 lower range at right angles running N. Whitewashed rubble stone with slate roofs and brick stacks, T plan. Lower range is single storey with attic dormers, catslide roof to rear. Larger crosswing is of 2 storeys with end stacks and has projecting latrine chute to E gable end. Lower range E front has red brick ridge stack right of centre, 2 stone dormers to left, casement pairs with timber lintels, over C17 Tudor-arched door in rectangular oak frame and cambered-headed casement pair. A blocked light further right, in line with chimney and a casement pair to extreme right with timber lintel. N gable end has 3-light timber diamond-mullion windows to loft.
Crosswing has ground floor casement pair and first floor triple casement under eaves in N return. E gable end is windowless but for tiny stair-light to centre right and smaller light above in attic. To left is projecting slate-roofed latrine.
S front is altered in C19 and C20. Three casement pairs above under eaves, and tiny stair light under eaves to right. Ground floor has large triple casement to left with timber linteland 9-pane window joined to 6-6-pane casement pair under single timber lintel with brick pier between. C20 stone-tile sills. Two C20 rooflights.
W gable has 2 small ground floor windows.

Interior

Cross-wing has 2-room ground floor, hall to E and parlour to W. Tudor-arched plank doors from the added N extension and to post-and-panel screen between hall and parlour. More ornate moulding to the E (hall) face. Elaborately moulded and stopped hall beams resting on wooden window lintels, and moulded joists, while parlour has 2-panel plaster ceiling with C17 elliptical panels with Tudor roses, leaf-trail and pomegranates. Both rooms have stone fireplaces with chamfered wooden lintels and stair access to side by plank and batten doors with strap hinges. Winding wooden baulk stairs to first floor with chamfered four-centered door heads and jambs to landing. Ornate early C17 carved shaped door head to first floor post-and-panel partition. Moulded beams with shallow camber. Winding stair from E bedroom to loft behind planked door with strap hinges.

Reasons for Listing

Graded II* as an important surviving late medieval to C16 house retaining much of its interior detail.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Old Trecastle Farmhouse at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17738020

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

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)