2049

 

II*  

Designated  

19/08/1955  

08/09/2000  

Howick Farmhouse  

 

Monmouthshire  

Devauden  

Chepstow  

Itton  

350227  

195567  

NE  

About 500m NE of Itton Road (B4293).  

Domestic  

 

A possibly mid C16 house (Fox and Raglan say 1540-50), extended in the mid C17 and re-roofed and altered in 1884, this date appears inscribed on one of the stair treads. In the late C20 the house has been divided in two with the C 16 house now let and the C 17 extension continuing as the farmhouse. The kitchen wing dates probably from 1884, but may be earlier. In the 1990s there has been some re-windowing with plastic double glazed units, while other windows have secondary glazing.  

The house is built of random limestone rubble with a Welsh slate roof. The C16 first build which forms the main front of the house is a two room plan with cross-passage and a small closet and garderobe wing at the rear. Added to this in the mid C17 is another room on the left with large lateral stack on the rear wall. Added to this is a Victorian kitchen wing and on the rear another wing perhaps a dairy, plus a modern conservatory. The main elevation is of three bays, with the left hand bay later as above. The ground floor has two plastic windows to the left, a 2-light Tudor window to the left of the door, a Tudor doorway with 4-centred head (this may have been moved from the east gable, see Fox and Raglan) and a C19 plank door, and to the right a C20 steel casement. The first floor has two plastic windows and a 2-light and a 3-light Tudor window. The attic has three gables, the first with a 3-light plastic window, the others with 2-light Tudor ones. A photograph in the house shows that the gables are an addition of 1884, but the Tudor windows were presumably reused from elsewhere in the building. Coped gables, small ridge stack in the cross-passage position and a larger one on the right gable. Kitchen wing with gable stack projects forward on the left. The left gable end has three modern windows. The right gable end has a first floor window which may have been inserted later and a Tudor garret window. On the right are two small windows to light the firestair. The rear elevation has, on the left, a 2-light Tudor window over a 6 over 6 pane sash. Next is a single light Tudor window over the rear cross-passage door. Then comes a projecting gabled bay in two parts, first the older with the garderobe with an original first floor window and a closet with a modern window, the ground floor is covered by the conservatory. Next is a C17 two flue external stack with two diamond set shafts at the top, the right hand flue is on corbels. Finally a modern 2-light plastic window over a 3-light one.  

The interior is particularly rich in period features. Cross-passage plan to the first build with a room on either side and an additional room added to the left in the C17. The screen wall between cross-passage and hall has been altered and is now difficult of interpretation, two doorways, one of which is modern. There are two spiral staircases with stone framed doorways, shaped doorheads and moulded frames in both stone and oak, C17 plank doors. Several fireplaces of different dates. Beamed ceilings with bar-and-runout and lambs-tongue stops to the chamfers. Two A-framed roofs, six trusses in the Tudor part and four in the C17 part, the Tudor ones are all numbered with carpenters' marks. The 1884 alteration to the front building line can be seen clearly. The kitchen wing has an A-frame roof of thin scantling.  

Included and highly graded as a very good C16 yeoman's house which was altered in the C17 and retains a number of important features from both periods.