2080

 

II  

Designated  

19/11/1953  

19/03/2001  

Pool Farmhouse with attached agricultural building  

 

Monmouthshire  

Whitecastle  

Monmouth  

Newcastle  

344620  

217601  

W  

Approximately 300m N of Newcastle, on the N side of a lane leading from the B4347 to Llanfaenor.  

Domestic  

 

A late-medieval type of cruck-framed and timber-walled hall-house, built probably in the earlier C16. Altered, mostly re-clad in stone and enlarged probably in the C17; and recently restored as a private dwelling. It is now 1½-storeyed, but according to Fox and Raglan it was originally single-storeyed and open to the roof.  

The house now has an L-shaped plan, with the original 2-bay range on an NE-SW axis, an added bay at the SW end and a projecting wing to the front of that. 1½-storeys. Timber-framing survives in the rear (NW) wall, but the walls are otherwise built of rendered rubble (recently re-rendered), and the roofs are of blue slate. The S front has a plain doorway protected by a simple gabled canopy and flanked by small square 2-light casements, a small gabled dormer above the doorway, with a 2-light casement, and a 1-light stair-window in the upper left corner next to the wing. The gable wall of the wing has a similar 2-light casement on each floor, and all these windows have restored joinery without glazing bars. There is a chimney on the ridge in line with the stair-window and another on the SW gable. At the rear the original 2-bay range has 2 tiers of square-panelled timber-framing on a rubble plinth (the E half covered by a lean-to), except at its W end, where the end of the rubble chimney-stack wall is exposed. The projecting ends of 3 ceiling beams rest on the rails. The roof of this portion now has 4 small skylights. The W bay has 2 portions of close-studded timber-framing: abutting the exposed stonework is a pair of full-height posts linked by a rail which has a single stud above and a modern glazed door below; and further to the W is another section of close-studding, consisting of a sill with a wallpost mounted on its right-hand end, a rail slightly above mid-point of the post, 3 studs below the rail and 2 above, perhaps formerly framing a window. Between these at ground floor is a modern 3-light casement. Attached to the NE end of the house, is a range of rubble-built former farm buildings extending to the SE, the inner portion a barn and the outer probably a shippon; the roof of the former slated and the latter of corrugated iron. Although these are largely C19 in character, a C17 mullion window in an internal cross wall indicates earlier origins.  

Contains 3 full cruck-trusses forming 2 bays of approximately equal length, that in the centre with a tie-beam, a slightly cambered collar with 3 vertical struts below and V-struts above. Stud-and-plank panelling tenoned into the soffit of the tie-beam, forming a partition to the former service room, has remains of an original doorway near its N end and a modern inserted doorway at its S end. The NE cruck-truss appears to have only a tie-beam and a collar, and the SW one (as drawn by Fox and Raglan) appears to be similar. Butting against the SW side of the latter truss is a thick rubble wall, which contains a fireplace with stone jambs and deep oak lintel and has on its NW side a deep entrance lobby, with a heavy oak Tudor-arched doorway at its outer end. This room has a ceiling of large transverse beams and square-section joists, all of high quality, the beams chamfered and the joists with grooved decoration, which is believed to have been inserted in the C17, at which time the lower part of the SW cruck blade was removed to make room for a wooden spiral staircase on that side of the rubble stack.  

Important as a late-medieval cruck-framed former hall-house, retaining very good internal character, and notwithstanding alteration to the exterior. Considerable original wall framing to the NW wall.