21244

 

II  

Designated  

29/01/1999  

29/01/1999  

Barn and Stable at Home Farm (also known as Chapel Barn)  

 

Bridgend  

Merthyr Mawr  

 

Merthyr Mawr  

288452  

177682  

 

Home Farm is approximately 200m NE of the parish church. The Barn and Stable is E of the farmhouse.  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

 

Home Farm is the site of Merthyr Mawr Hall, a house described by Leland in the mid C16. An early map of Merthyr Mawr Hall shows it as a 2-storey house with attic dormers, behind which was a courtyard and a gatehouse. A plan of Merthyr Mawr surveyed in 1794 suggests the house stood to the W of the present barn and stable. The present barn retains C16 work which suggests that its origins may have been a subsidiary building to the hall. Traditionally it is said to have been a chapel, perhaps on the basis of its surviving mullioned windows, although the N-S orientation of the building makes this unlikely. Opposed doorways suggestive of a cross passage makes a domestic origin more likely, although there is no evidence of fireplaces in any of the surviving walls. By 1794 the building had been extended and was probably in use as a barn. When the Merthyr Mawr Estate was purchased by Sir John Nicholl in 1804 the old hall was demolished and replaced by a new farmhouse which became the Home Farm of the estate, while a new mansion was built on a new site to the NE. An estate map of 1813 describes the building as a barn and stable. The malthouse at the N end was added in the latter half of the C19. It is possibly contemporary with another malthouse standing on the S side of the farm house, and was probably built in conjunction with a large brewhouse built in the late C19 on the NE side of the barn.  

A long range consisting of a barn at the S end, a stable with loft, and a narrower added stable with malthouse at the N end. Of rubble limestone with slate roof. Facing W the barn has a full-height wagon bay doorway (the original lintel or arch now missing) flanked by infilled C16 doorways with Tudor heads. Flanking these doorways are former 2-light Tudor-headed windows with hood moulds, now infilled and the mullions missing. Flanking the wagon bay doorway are loft openings beneath the eaves. Further L (N) is an added lean-to (probably a workshop) with a central segmental headed doorway with boarded door, and L of lean-to is a stone stairway leading to boarded double doors. The stable beyond has boarded doors R and L with narrower segmental-headed vents above. To the R of centre is a wider former doorway, now blocked to form a window. The added stable and malthouse is set back at the L end has gablets to each face. In the lower storey is a tall doorway to R incorporating a boarded stable door and boarded vent. In the gablet above is a narrow breather. The N end wall has a similar breather. Behind, the added stable and malthouse is again set back from the main elevation, and has external stone steps to a boarded door under a segmental head. To the L of the steps is an infilled doorway. The stable has 2 loft openings beneath the eaves (boarded up to R). Below are a wide segmental-headed doorway to the L (leading to a former cart shed), an infilled former doorway under a brick segmental head to the centre, and a narrower former doorway to the R under a segmental head, now infilled to form a shuttered window. To the L of centre is a tall narrow ventilation slit with brick infill, above which are small inserted bearing boxes, which formerly housed line-shafting transmitting power from a portable engine. The barn has a shallow added lean-to porch to the cart passage of coursed stone, immediately flanking which are small ventilation slits at low level. The ventilation slit on the R side is within the infill of a blocked Tudor-headed doorway. Additional tall narrow ventilation slits upper R and L. The S gable end has a lean-to added.  

A rubble-stone dividing wall separates barn from stable and was the N gable end of the original building. In the S gable end of the barn the gable of the earlier single-storey building is visible with a blocked loft doorway within it. The Tudor-headed doorways in the W and E walls are aligned to suggest a former cross passage. Five-bay roof has machine-sawn trusses with pegged collar beams. The wagon bay retains most of its flagstones. The stables retain some feeding troughs and cobbled floors. The upper storey of the malthouse has plastered floor and walls. The roof consists of a king post with raking struts, machine-sawn.  

A large early C19 estate farm building retaining original character and detail, and with interesting late-medieval origins. Also included for group value with other listed items at Home Farm and the Merthyr Mawr Estate.