5956

 

II  

Designated  

14/05/1970  

12/09/1996  

Hill House and Garden Wall  

 

Pembrokeshire  

Cosheston  

Pembroke Dock  

Cosheston Village  

200444  

203658  

 

Immediately SW of the crossroads in the centre of Cosheston Village. The entrance to the grounds is at the S. The house faces W to an enclosed area, part of which is now (1995) in different ownership. There is a small service yard to the S.  

Domestic  

 

A house of about 1800, on the Roch Estate. It was tenanted by Mrs Holcombe in 1840, by which date its lean-to extension to the S appears to have been added. After 1864 a NE corner wing was added, extending the building right up to the angle of the crossroads. This corner wing is in stonework of a slightly different technique, with limestone quoins. Adjoining the house at the N of the enclosed grounds, facing the street is a wall, the W part of which was further heightened in 1866 to preserve the privacy of the garden when the Carpenter's Arms public house was built opposite. Probably at the time the corner wing was added the whole house was given sash windows with unusual diagonal glazing bars. At the front of the house (facing W to its private grounds) the windows were enlarged to an enormous size. The rear windows upstairs (facing the road) were widened to the size of those beneath; the altered upstairs windows have brick flat arches, whereas the lower ones have flat arches in the same stone as the walls. The house later became a public house, and was at one time entered by a door in the N gable. Recently a central doorway has been formed in its front elevation.  

A high wall in rubble masonry at the N of the site is an important visual link from Hill House to other houses of the village. Uncoursed rubble sandstone masonry, rendered and painted on the W and N faces. The front of the main block to the enclosed grounds and its rear to the street are both of three windows in width. The main block of the house is of two storeys, and has a half-hipped slate roof with large multiple chimney stacks at each end. The chimneys are also rendered and coloured. The NE wing, which is later in date, is in similar stone but in a more regularly coursed technique and with limestone quoins. The dominant feature is the window design: the windows are of sash type with diagonal glazing bars, spaced closely. The front door is modern, in a painted surround.  

The main ground-floor partitions have been removed but some original detail survives. There are original alcoves with elliptical heads, two at each end and one at the rear of the room. At one end is a fireplace in Jacobean style. There are panelled shutters to all the main windows. The staircase has a cut string and shaped brackets, and a swept handrail. Pegged hewn trusses are visible in the attic bedrooms.  

Listed as a prominently-sited house of unusual character.