1881

 

II*  

Designated  

25/05/1962  

31/03/1999  

Penllwyn, former manor house now Penllwyn Arms public house  

 

Caerphilly  

Pontllanfraith  

 

Penllwyn  

317406  

195592  

 

On the hillside W of the town centre, in an open space but surrounded by Penllwyn estate development.  

Commercial  

 

C16. Seat of the Morgan family. Built together with Rhos Newydd by Thomas Morgan of Machen for youngest son Edmund. Thomas Morgan fought with the Earl of Richmond at the Battle of Bosworth 1485 and was granted as reward land of the parishes of Bedwellty and Mynyddislwyn. Bradney provides family tree of Morgan family at Penllwyn Sarph, showing many members holding high office, as sheriffs, MPs, judges . Became part of Llanover Estate in 1757 when Florence Morgan conveyed estate to her husband John Jones of Llanarth. Archdeacon Coxe on his travels c 1800 reported two portraits of members of the family killed in 1670 in a duel with Charles Williams of Caerleon. Former use as convent, subsequently a welfare clinic. Also formerly known as Penllwyn Sarph and shown on first edition OS map as Penllwyn Fawr and surrounded then by garden and orchard. Sketch of rear of E-shaped wing made in 1953 is included in Bradney 1993 edition.  

Manor House. A long rectangular building of rubble with ashlar dressings and stone tile roof: large ridge stack over porch bay and twin angled stacks end right with cornices; further stacks to rear. 2 storeys and attic. 5 bays, the centre a 2-storeyed hipped roof porch. Windows have diamond mullions with ashlar surrounds, metal-framed casements with quarry glazing; some of the armatures to which the leaded lights were originally attached are still in situ. Windows to left wing have hoodmoulds, those to right have relieving arches. Central porch has 2-light window to first floor; below is the main entrance with 4-centred arch, rough voussoirs and surround; set back boarded door with grille and decorative hinges; 3-light side window; battered and with boulder footings. To left each bay has a narrow steep-pitched gable with sprocketed eaves, a single rectangular light to attic; 4-light window to first floor and 5 to ground floor. To right the gabled bays are similar though wider with 2-light windows to attic, paired double-light windows to first floor and 3-light to ground floor, with doorways to left side of each bay, square headed and deep set to right under relieiving arch now the main entrance to public house (blocked window to right) and segmental arched to left; signs of alterations to some openings . Downhill-facing gable end is a rebuild or extension with the twin stacks astride the gable and uniform small mullioned windows under relieving arches, 2 to each floor. Large external stack adjacent also with twin gabled stacks. Flat roofed extension to rear masks main building but the variation in roof pitches shows a division between the two wings and the irregular E-shaped plan of the N wing. This comprises 3 steeply gabled wings of unequal depths, that to left incorporating a stepped stack, the centre rendered with an attic light, to right a slightly lower wing with a narrower bay stepped down to rear. Seen from the side, the wing has a half dormer with windows similar to front and a further pitched roof extending over outshut from the rear bay. Extending from front left a is a short stretch of wall incorporating an archway.  

Interior mostly remodelled during various occupations with fireplaces blocked. Ground floor consists of two main large rooms each extending across both bays. Stairs, replaced, rise to rear to large first floor room with chamber over porch. Main roof structure has pegged A-frame trusses with carpenters' marks, partly visible in first floor rooms.  

Listed II* as a major C16 and later manor house; group value with the surrounding wall.