The Post Office

Cadw's description

Location

Situated prominently on the S side of the village square at Caldey,

History

Village shop and club, 1911, by John Coates Carter for the Anglican Benedictine community at Caldey. One of Carter's most unusual designs, the roof in two pitches, the lower-pitched lower slopes acting as deep canopies around the building. The motif is taken probably from the American architect H H Richardson, whose Old Colony railway station of 1881-4 is similar. Since building one of the two chimneys has been removed. Roof restored 2001, the verges of the overhang slightly cut back. Peter Anson depicts the woodwork as being painted green originally.

Exterior

Village stores and post-office, white-painted roughcast with red-tiled roofs, renewed in 2001. Rectangular-plan, 1-storey and attic, with very distinctive hipped roof in two pitches on all 4 sides, the main roof steep with small plain tiles and the lower roof flared out at low pitch with single Roman large tiles. Roughcast tall chimney on W roof slope, formerly with pair on E slope. Two steep hipped dormers each with casement-pair on sides, double dormer with 4-light casement to front and single dormer to S rear.
N front wall is set back with roof carried out on raking struts and corners are further rebated, two struts raking from a corbel on corner and another from front wall each side of the entry. Single very broad lunette entry with big impost capitals set low. Originally with small-paned glazing and centre cambered-headed half-glazed door. Some of the glazing replaced with plate glass. Return E wall to right has sash-window, glazed upper sash, lower half with letter box, and N-facing wall of rebate has narrow small-paned light. Rebate to left has arched door facing N. W side has 2 doors with overlights, narrow 6-pane window between, and another shorter to left. E side has casement left, then door with window, then 12-pane window, then casement, then door with window and finally another door. Rear wall has one door.
Attached to right, NE, corner is whitewashed rubble stone wall with arched entry into side passage to village club. Wall curves around and continues up hill to link to wall to former abbot's garden, with one arched doorway to path to gardens.

Interior

N end post-office has boarded walls and flat ceiling. S end village club-room, not inspected is said to have arched plaster ceiling.

Reason for designation

Included as a remarkable Arts-and-Crafts movement design of great originality.