25184

 

II  

Designated  

15/05/2001  

15/05/2001  

The Vicarage  

 

Caerphilly  

Rhymney  

Rhymney  

Rhymney  

311355  

207510  

W  

Set on the sloping ground of The Lawn, just off the High Street and close to the village centre.  

Domestic  

 

Early to mid C19. The Lawn was a large wooded enclosure of about 20 acres containing 3 large houses built for the Rhymney Iron Company, consolidated 1837; one traditionally used by the Directors, another by the Managers and another by the Surgeon. This house appears to have functioned partly as a guest-house for directors or managers: censuses suggest a proprietress or house-keeper in permanent residence. Later used as a vicarage. Underneath The Lawn runs Hubbuch's Tunnel. Hubbuch, a manager of the Rhymney Iron Company, built the tunnel on the route of the tramway from Ras Bryn Oer to Middle Furnace: the track ran from the drift mines at The Ras, along the back of The Terrace, through this tunnel under Surgery Hill, with S portal still visible just outside The Lawn boundary, terminating at Middle Furnace behind Forge Street  

Large detached house in Regency style. Wholly rendered, stucco to front and roughcast to side; hipped Welsh slate roof with shallow pitch, deep overhanging boarded bracketed eaves; narrow lateral stack at left. 2 storeys, attic and cellar. 3-window range originally of 12-pane sashes to first floor, replaced in UPVC to front but retained to rear; ground floor has replaced tripartite windows either side of a central flat-roofed porch approached by 2 shallow stone steps; main inner doorway is original, part-panelled with small-pane glazing above. Attached to rear is a small single storey wing with pyramidal roof and large lateral stack, possibly a former laundry.  

Flaf floor to porch. Central hallway with reception rooms on each side and staircase to rear which retains stick balusters and wreathed handrail and ascends through 2 storeys. Original fittings retained include architraves incorporating roundels, panelled shutters and reveals, 6-panelled doors, some with a vertical moulding to simulate double doors. Upper floor was used as servants quarters and retains boarded partitions creating a series of small rooms some with only internal windows; wide floorboards. The vaulted brick cellar reached from a steep flight of stairs at back of hall retains a set of meat or bottle shelves; the draught of fresh air here suggests that a now blocked archway at end may connect with the tunnel which runs under The Lawns.  

Listed notwithstanding alterations as one of a group of 3 important residential buildings associated with the Rhymney Iron Company.