Post Office and Forge Cottage

Cadw's description

Location

Set back in generous front gardens on the N side of the road, approximately 100m E of Hendre crossroads.

History

Dated 1893, and built for The Hendre estate of the Rolls family who were pioneers of aviation and motoring.

Exterior

A pair of 2-storeyed estate houses built of snecked sandstone with timber-framed porches and red tiled roofs, reproducing the general design of Fairoaks (q.v.) and Pen-y-cwm (q.v.) but doubled as a unified and symmetrical range, with a projecting gabled bay at each end and a pair of smaller gables in the centre; plus a small side-wing with a porch at the W end. In the angle with each of the outer bays is a gabled timber-framed and slate-roofed porch with corbelled semicircular outer arch and open square-panelled timber detail to the gable, round-arched openings to the sides, an inner side bench and a part-glazed door; and tucked under the eaves above each is very shallow 2-light mullioned window. Each has a canted bay window to the outer gabled bay with wooden transomed glazing and hipped tiled roof, a transomed 3-light window to the inner bay, and a cross-window at 1st floor above these (those in the centre rising into dormer gables). Between the upper and lower windows of the gabled outer bay each has a square plaque carved with a quatrefoil containing Lord Llangattock's monogram "Ll" and the date 1893. The eaves and gables oversail, the gables having plain bargeboarding with finials, and in the centre of the roof is a chimney stack with 6 tall octagonal chimney pots. Attached to the W return wall of the left house is a short single-storey side wing which has a lower but wider porch in the same style as the others, protecting a doorway and a wall letterbox.

Reason for designation

Included as a well-detailed pair of estate cottages, part of an important series of buildings built by the Hendre estate in the 1890s; and for group value with the nearby horse trough and with Box Bush Lodge opposite.