The Grove

Cadw's description

Location

100 m W of St. Florence Church, facing E to the main street of the village.

History

A farmhouse largely rebuilt in the C19, with a mediaeval doorway in a conspicuously thick wall at the front and a fragment of another at the rear. In 1840 the house was described as a cottage, owned by J. Harries and occupied by W. Morris. In 1867 Barnwell, evidently referring to this house, mentioned the surviving C14 main doorway, but described the remainder of the house as of recent date. In 1887 it was The Ball public house. Now a guest house.

Exterior

Rendered and stone boundary wall at front Stone gate piers.

Two storeys, range of three windows facing E. Painted uncoursed rubble masonry. The front wall in the vicinity of the old doorway is about 0.8 m in thickness, elsewhere the front wall is about 0.6 m thick. Slate roof with brick end-chimneys. 9-pane horned sash windows above and 12-paned sash windows beneath. The windows have slightly cambered brick arches and stone sills. The pointed door arch is 1.2 m wide, equilateral and deeply chamfered, with sandstone outbands and jambs on limestone plinth blocks. Modern double-doors. The front elevation of the house is comparable to Old Chimneys, in its form and the similar retention of an old doorway.

At the N side of the rear is a two-storey extension with a lower eaves level. Late C19 9-pane sash windows to the N elevation. In tandem with this is a back-kitchen wing later used as a cowshed. Its roof timbers are smoke-stained from the former proximity of a very large chimney, recently demolished.

Interior

Three-room plan with central winding staircase. There is the exposed jamb of another possibly mediaeval doorway in the rear wall of the right-hand room.

Reason for designation

Listed as a good example of a C19 vernacular farmhouse retaining a medieval doorway of exceptional quality.