Outbuilding to north of Church Farmhouse

Cadw's description

Location

In the garden on the north side of Church Farmhouse.

History

This is a detached kitchen which is probably contemporary with the main farmhouse and is thus early C16. It was converted to a bakehouse probably in the mid C19 when the house stopped being the Rectory and became a farmhouse. It also had what is probably a donkey stable added to the north gable at that time. It was then converted again to a wash-house in c1935, probably when the present tenanted family took over the farm. There has been no alteration to it since apart from re-roofing. The barn is mentioned in the 1636 Glebe Terrier. This is a very rare survival in such close proximity to a complete medieval rectory. Another example of this building type survives at Flemingston Court in St. Athan Community (qv).

Exterior

Built of local limestone rubble with large, carefully laid quoins, and a dressed stone doorway. The main elevation is on the west and has a central doorway with dressed and chamfered jambs and a 2-centred chamfered arch. There are indications of possible small windows or, at least, vents in the walling on either side of the doorway but everything is blocked and difficult to decipher. Moderately pitched roof covered in profiled steel sheeting. The right gable wall was partly rebuilt in the mid C19 to incorporate the bakehouse chimney and this is a redbrick one above the ridge line. The left gable is covered by a lower, possibly donkey, stable with boarded door and dressed vent to right. There is a straight joint between this and the barn. Corrugated iron roof leaning-to the taller back wall. The rear wall of the barn is plain apart from a central window which appears to have been put in in the mid C19, but the C16 kitchen must have had windows of some sort.

Interior

The interior retains its large stone fireplace, and this was adapted when it became the farm bakehouse in the mid C19. The fireplace contains the brick built washing copper which was added when the building became a wash-house in c1930. The roof structure has been largely replaced.

Reason for designation

Included and highly graded for its importance as a late medieval detached kitchen and its group value with the adjacent and contemporary Church Farmhouse.