25784

 

II  

Designated  

27/09/2001  

27/09/2001  

Parlour Farmhouse  

 

Monmouthshire  

Mitchel Troy  

Monmouth  

Dingestow  

344299  

212069  

 

About 2.2km NW of the church of St Dingat, in a very isolated position at the end of a long farm track curving NW off the N side of a minor road. It is in a sheltered hollow near the Nant Ffin brook, and about 1km SW of the site of Parc Grace Dieu.  

Domestic  

 

The name, proximity to the site of Parc Grace Dieu, and the high quality of surviving features, suggest a possible association with the monastic community. Fox & Raglan suggested two closely succeeding phases of addition to an earlier house, then demolished, but the building can also be interpreted on its own terms without either hypothesis. Modernised since their survey (in 1943), losing some of the features which then existed. It contains interesting evidence of what Fox & Raglan called a "house-within-a-house".  

Very thick rubble walls (almost 1m) now rendered and roughcast; blue slate roofs on 2 levels; red brick chimneys. The plan has 2 elements: a "hall" range on a roughly N-S axis, originally of 2 unequal cells, with a much taller 1-unit, 2½-storey parlour wing at its S end projecting slightly to the E; plus a lean-to at the N gable and another lean-to wrapped round the E gable of the parlour wing (each containing a modern doorway and modern windows). The surviving features of historical interest are wooden mullioned windows in the parlour wing: in the S elevation: one of 6 lights at ground floor and one of 2 lights at 1st floor; and in the W gable wall, one of 7 lights at ground floor and one of 2 lights offset left at 1st floor. All have wooden lintels and deeply-recessed moulded mullions, and those at ground floor have moulded surrounds. (Plate XIVd of Fox & Raglan vol.2 shows a W gable chimney and 2 small attic windows, but the chimney has been removed and the 2 windows have been replaced by a single modern window in the centre of the gable. Also, wooden mullioned windows of 6 and 4 lights at ground floor of the W side of the hall range at the time of their survey have been replaced with modern glazing.) There is a small chimney at the N gable of the hall range and another at the E gable of the wing.  

The hall range was originally partitioned to form a "hall" with a small "inner room" at its S end, as indicated by an undecorated lateral beam where the partition would have been. A central lateral beam and a half-beam close to the N gable wall survive, together with a full set of original ceiling joists, all with rich run-out moulding. In the SE corner of this range is a massive Tudor-arched oak doorway with chamfered surround and original plank door with applied vertical moulding, opening into the parlour, from which it was originally lockable with a draw bar, as a slot for this indicates. (This appears to be evidence of a "house-within-a-house", enabling the family to separate themselves from inferior members of the household.) The parlour has 3 lateral beams with run-out moulding like those in the hall range, but a ceiling now conceals the joists. A very thick E gable wall contains a hearth (now concealed) and formerly contained a mural staircase in the SE corner. Built into the SW corner, and extending beneath both windows, is an L-shaped panelled-back settle. The chamber above was reported by Fox & Raglan to contain a lateral beam with running-vine decoration.  

Included as an interesting C16 house of modest proportions still containing original features of high quality.