The Vicarage

Cadw's description

Location

Set on the sloping ground of The Lawn, just off the High Street and close to the village centre.

History

Early to mid C19. The Lawn was a large wooded enclosure of about 20 acres containing 3 large houses built for the Rhymney Iron Company, consolidated 1837; one traditionally used by the Directors, another by the Managers and another by the Surgeon. This house appears to have functioned partly as a guest-house for directors or managers: censuses suggest a proprietress or house-keeper in permanent residence. Later used as a vicarage. Underneath The Lawn runs Hubbuch's Tunnel. Hubbuch, a manager of the Rhymney Iron Company, built the tunnel on the route of the tramway from Ras Bryn Oer to Middle Furnace: the track ran from the drift mines at The Ras, along the back of The Terrace, through this tunnel under Surgery Hill, with S portal still visible just outside The Lawn boundary, terminating at Middle Furnace behind Forge Street

Exterior

Large detached house in Regency style. Wholly rendered, stucco to front and roughcast to side; hipped Welsh slate roof with shallow pitch, deep overhanging boarded bracketed eaves; narrow lateral stack at left. 2 storeys, attic and cellar. 3-window range originally of 12-pane sashes to first floor, replaced in UPVC to front but retained to rear; ground floor has replaced tripartite windows either side of a central flat-roofed porch approached by 2 shallow stone steps; main inner doorway is original, part-panelled with small-pane glazing above. Attached to rear is a small single storey wing with pyramidal roof and large lateral stack, possibly a former laundry.

Interior

Flaf floor to porch. Central hallway with reception rooms on each side and staircase to rear which retains stick balusters and wreathed handrail and ascends through 2 storeys. Original fittings retained include architraves incorporating roundels, panelled shutters and reveals, 6-panelled doors, some with a vertical moulding to simulate double doors. Upper floor was used as servants quarters and retains boarded partitions creating a series of small rooms some with only internal windows; wide floorboards. The vaulted brick cellar reached from a steep flight of stairs at back of hall retains a set of meat or bottle shelves; the draught of fresh air here suggests that a now blocked archway at end may connect with the tunnel which runs under The Lawns.

Reason for designation

Listed notwithstanding alterations as one of a group of 3 important residential buildings associated with the Rhymney Iron Company.