24570

 

II  

Designated  

30/01/2001  

30/01/2001  

The Grondra  

 

Monmouthshire  

Shirenewton  

Chepstow  

The Grondra  

349349  

193698  

N  

About 1000m east of Shirenewton on the road to Mounton.  

Domestic  

 

This is a late C18 house which was enlarged and altered in c1840 or a little later, and it has stayed much the same apart from general modernisation.  

The house is rendered and painted apart from red sandstone quoins, some of which are of recent introduction. Welsh slate roofs. Central three storey double depth plan block, this is the original house, and this has single storey wings which were added on either side in the mid C19. The main elevation faces east and was originally the entrance front. It is three windows wide with an additional one window wing on either side. Both the main block and the wings have quoins, some of which are new. The main block has large tripartite sashes on the ground floor, 2 over 2 panes flank 6 over 6. Central french casement with top lights, marginal glazing and a small bracketted hood. All these have stucco surounds as do the windows in the wings which are 6 over 6 sashes. The wings have hipped roofs to either side. The first floor of the main block has tripartite sashes flanking a 6 over 6 pane sash, smaller versions of the ones below. The central window has a mid C19 balcony. The stucco architraves have brackets. Smaller windows of the same type above, but all have the same number of panes as the larger ones below. Hipped roof on paired timber brackets. This is also a mid C19 alteration as can be seen by the way the brackets fit over the window architraves. End stacks with weathered caps. The entrance elevation has a large tetrastyle Ionic portico with a wider gap between the central columns. The outer columns have the Ionic volutes set diagonally. Panelled double door with stucco surround and narrow 4 over 4 pane sashes on either side. The wings have 16 pane sashes in stucco surrounds, eaves on paired brackets. The main block has a sash window visible to the upper floor and the eaves brackets continue right round the building. There is an enclosed service courtyard with the old kitchen heightened in the late C20 to make a service flat. North elevation not seen.  

The interior has a great deal of late C18 joinery with 6-panel doors and moulded architraves of a type standard to the 1790s. The staircase, which rises to the full height, is particularly good. It has arched windows with panelled reveals and keyed heads at each half landing. A curved cantilevered stone stair with turned balusters to each tread has a mahogany handrail which forms an elegant semi-circle at each landing. The stair ceiling has a plaster cornice and a central oval. There are plaster cornices and marble fireplaces of mid C19 date in some of the ground floor rooms and an introduced (post 1948) late C18 Adam style fireplace in one room. The rooms flanking the entrance, added in the mid C19, were perhaps designed as an estate office/smoking room and a billiard room.  

Included as a late C18 house which was extended and altered in the mid C19 and retains good details from both periods.