Full Report for Listed Buildings
Summary Description of a Listed Buildings
Date of Designation
06/11/1962
Date of Amendment
30/04/2001
Name of Property
Pentre Farmhouse
Unitary Authority
Flintshire
Location
Approximately 0.2km S of the Gronant village, reached by farm road from the centre of the village.
History
Built in 1574 (date on building), but the house appears to be of 2 phases. Opposed doorways suggest an original cross passage, but this was obscured by the insertion of back-to-back fireplaces in hall and parlour to create a lobby entry plan. The ovolo-moulded parlour fireplace and the ovolo mouldings to the lower-storey windows (that contrast with the cavetto moulding of the doorway) both suggest substantial remodelling of the house in the C17. A detached secondary dwelling was built behind the house later in the C17. In the C19 the house was divided into 2 dwellings as a second doorway was inserted in place of an original hall window. A gabled projection was added to the rear in the final quarter of the C19 and is first shown on the 1899 Ordnance Survey. A lean-to dairy was rebuilt in the early 1970s, and some inserted windows were replaced in the 1990s.
Exterior
A 2-storey 4-window house of rubble stone with bigger quoins, slate roof and brick stacks at the L end and R of centre. The doorway R of centre has a Tudor head and cavetto moulding, and a hood mould over a shield inscribed 'AD 1574'. The door is boarded, a late C19 replacement. The windows mainly retain original ovolo mullions in the lower storey and have plain chamfers above. They also have hood moulds in the lower storey and upper-storey gablets. On the R side of the doorway is a 2-light window lighting the parlour. On the L side is a similar window to the hall but without hood mould, and then a 2-light window with plain chamfer, the mullion brought from the secondary dwelling behind the main house, and replacing a doorway inserted C19 in the position of an original hall window, the hood mould of which has survived. A 2-light window is further L lighting the service room. In the upper storey are a 3-light window under a gablet over the parlour, 2-light window over the doorway, a 3-light window under a gablet over the L-hand hall window, and a bricked-up 2-light window over the service room. A raked buttress is at the L end. The R gable end of the house is pebble dashed and has a 3-light window with hood mould in the upper storey.
The rear retains some mullioned windows with plain chamfers and hood moulds. It has an added gabled porch L of centre, to the L of which is a 2-light mullioned parlour window and above it a blocked 3-light mullioned window under a gablet. To the R of the porch is a 2-light mullioned window with hood, lighting the hall, and an inserted or enlarged window above. Further R is a late C19 single-storey gabled brick projection, the roof slope of which obscures the stone surround of a blocked former window over the hall. To the R of the projection is a window lower R replacing a earlier doorway, and a window above inserted in the stone surround of a former 2-light mullioned window. The L gable end of the house has a single-storey projection with a flat roof (replacing a lean-to former dairy), and above it an inserted 2-light window.
Interior
The house is 3 units with a lobby entry. The hall has a single cross beam with stepped stops and plain joists. The fireplace has a timber lintel, brought from another site, and a reduced brick oven. Part of the timber-framed screen between hall and service room has survived, but with a doorway cut in and the original doorway infilled. The service room has a single cross beam with stepped stop. In the parlour is a broad-chamfered spine beam with plain joists and an ovolo-moulded stone fireplace with lintel.
Reason for designation
Listed grade II* as an especially well-preserved sub-medieval farmhouse retaining early plan form and good early detail.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]