Mill House

Cadw's description

Location

On the W side of the junction of the road with the SE end of the village street, facing the plot occupied by Skenfrith Mill.

History

A small house probably built in the earlier C18 and remodelled in the C19 (a hipped roof altered as a gabled roof); with a bakehouse added to the rear about the same time.

Exterior

Small house. Scored render, probably on sandstone rubble, now overpainted with textured white paint; blue slate roofs with red brick chimney stacks. The main house has a single-depth 3-bay plan with a staircase wing in the centre of the rear; the added bakehouse is in the SW angle, extending south-westwards. The front range, facing NE, has a symmetrical 2-storeyed 3-window facade. In the centre of the ground floor is a small gabled porch with a keyed round-headed outer arch and a small window in the right-hand side, protecting a panelled door with glazed top panels. All the windows are unhorned 12-pane sashes with keystones. The roof has 2 modern skylights and gable chimneys. Attached to the right-hand gable is a tall single-storey side wing with a C20 garage door. The left gable wall has one window on each floor towards the rear corner, the upper very narrow and both with altered glazing. The rear slope of the roof has a small flat-roofed dormer. The rear angle is filled by a deep lean-to, its roof descending from eaves level of the rear staircase wing. It has one large and one small rectangular small-paned window, the latter with a square wooden surround containing segmental-headed cast-iron 16-pane glazing, the 4 central panes being a casement opening; and a very tall brick chimney breaking through its left side about halfway down the roof slope, from which point a low single-storey 2-window extension continues to the rear, canted slightly back. This has 2 square windows with cast-iron glazing like the last-mentioned; and brick chimney on the rear gable.

Interior

An entrance passage leads to the rear staircase wing. The room on the right of the passage has 2 chamfered ceiling beams of relatively light scantling, and a chimney breast containing a hearth beam approximately 1½m above floor level and 2½m long. The room on the other side has one beam, and a fireplace approximately 1m square, with stone jambs. The staircase wing contains a doglegged staircase rising to attic level, with a closed string, shallow risers and lightly-moulded handrail, but lacking balusters. (A very similar staircase in the Old Vicarage has bar balusters.)
At 1st-floor level there are 4 lateral beams with small chamfer. The roof has principal-rafter trusses forming 2 main structural bays but with the raked principals of a formerly hipped roof at both ends.

Reason for designation

Included as a good village house, externally retaining a C19 character though with earlier features internally, and including a well-preserved bakehouse range. Forms part of a group at the centre of the village.