25039

 

II*  

Designated  

19/03/2001  

19/03/2001  

Farmstead complex to NW of The Grange Farmhouse including walled poultry enclosure to NE  

 

Monmouthshire  

Whitecastle  

Monmouth  

Newcastle  

345270  

216601  

 

On the W side of the farmhouse, approximately 800m SE of Newcastle, off the NE side of a lane which coverges on the B4347 there.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

Built in at least two phases, beginning probably in the early C18. A datestone on the formerly external SE gable wall of the barn on the SW side of the yard, now visible in the upper floor of the stable at that end, is lettered "T" "E" with a date which appears to be 1702 (the 3rd digit partly eroded).  

An impressive complex of mainly C18 farm buildings enclosing the SW, NW and NE sides of a large farmyard and comprising a stable with farmhands' accommodation over, 2 large barns, 2 cow-houses, an open-fronted shelter shed and a poultry enclosure with duckpond. Built of coursed sandstone rubble, the roofs mostly blue slate but part replaced with corrugated sheet. The stable and a barn form the SW range; the other barn, linked at right-angles to the first, a 2-storey cow-house and a lofted single-storey cow-house form the NW range (descending a gentle slope); the shelter shed closes the NE end, and the poultry enclosure is integral with the rear of that. The 2½-storey stable, the barns and the storeyed cow-house are all the same height. The SW range is dominated by a very unusual roofed external staircase to the 1st floor of the stable. This covers the junction of the barn and stable, the steps mounting from R to L and protected by a coped parapet and a carried-down roof supported by 5 chamfered wooded posts mounted on the parapet. There is an added lean-to in the angle to the L, next to that a doorway to the ground floor, and above the lean-to is a square 2-light opening with internal wooden shutters; and the gable wall has a similar opening to each of its 3 floors. All these openings have flat-arched heads with gauged rubble voussoirs and slightly raised keystones. The barn to the R has an almost-semicircular arched wagon doorway in the centre and one tall slit-breather on either side. At right-angles to its R end is the barn in the NW range, which has a similar wagon doorway and one slit-breather to the R. A vertical joint marks the junction with a 2-storeyed cowhouse (the upper floor a chaff loft), which has one doorway at the junction, another in the centre and a 3rd opening beyond that, all with board doors and keyed flat-arched heads like those in the stable; 2 slit-breathers to the floor above; and a corrugated sheet roof. Continuing to the right (without a joint) is a single-storeyed but lofted cow-shed which has a small window and 2 doorways, all segmental-headed; and its gable-end has 3 small openings at ground floor and a segmental-headed loft opening in the gable. Attached at right-angles to the R end of the front is the shelter shed. This is a long, low structure with a pitched roof, and an 8-bay colonnade of plain wooden posts with a wallplate supporting the front ends of bolted kingpost trusses. At its junction with the cow-house a segmental-arched doorway with 2 steps down through the rear wall leads to the poultry enclosure, where the rear wall of the shelter shed has a 1-course band over a very low basement which has 5 small square openings for the birds. The other 3 sides of this area, which is grassed and contains a duckpond, are almost entirely enclosed by rubble walls approximately 2m high. The accommodation afforded by these buildings, particularly the barns, appears to be far greater than would be required for this farm alone, but the reason for this is not known.  

In the SW range the room at 1st floor of the stable has plastered walls; the attic above it has 2 open principal-rafter trusses with arched collars, and set in its rear wall (the gable-end of the barn) is a carved plaque which has a primitively decorated panel with the initials "T" and "E" and the date "17" "[0?]2". Both barns have strutted principal-rafter roof trusses, that in the SW range with added collars, and wagon doorways in the rear walls like those at the front; and the barn in the NW range, which crosses the end of the other, has a cross-gable on the NW side of the bay at that end.  

Included at grade II* as an impressive and exceptionally complete complex of early C18 farmbuildings.