Rock Nest, including attached stable and cart house

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from the road behind No 13 Wexham Street.

History

Probably built in the late C18 or early C19. The 1829 town plan shows it as 2 houses with attached stable and cart house. It faced a tannery yard. Later it was sub-divided to form 3 dwellings, but is now a single dwelling.

Exterior

A 2½-storey house comprising originally 2 dwellings not quite in alignment although roofed as a single range, with a lofted stable and cart house set back at the L end. Of pebble-dashed front, rubble-stone rear, and slate roof with pebble-dashed stacks. The front elevation has openings forming 3 distinct units. In the centre is a 6-panel door in a scribed-render surround, flanked by tripartite hornless 12-pane sash windows. In the upper storey are cambered 2-pane sash windows flanking a 12-pane hornless sash window above the entrance.

In the L-hand unit is a boarded door, with glazed panel, under a cambered head, flanked by a narrow window to the R and narrow cambered 8-pane horizontal-sliding sash window to the L. The upper storey has a cambered 12-pane hornless sash window. The R-hand unit has a replacement glazed door with 12-pane horizontal-sliding sash window immediately to its L. The upper storey has a 12-pane horizontal-sliding sash window. There are 3 hipped roof dormers, the R-hand with replacement glazing, the centre and L with small-pane glazing.

Set back at the L end is the rubble-stone lofted stable and cart house, under a slate roof. The cart house to the R has a timber lintel and replacement boarded doors. The stable has a split boarded door to the R under a boarded-up loft opening, central window boarded up, and boarded door to the L. The L gable end rises higher than the stable roof, suggesting that a higher range once stood further to the L, replaced by a corrugated-iron lean-to.

In the rear elevation the 2 original units are clearly distinguished. The L-hand has a blank back and an added lean-to. The projecting 3-window R-hand section has a 12-pane horned sash stair window to the L, in the centre a 2-pane sash in the upper storey, small-pane window below, and on the R side a 12-pane hornless sash window in the upper storey and 6-pane window below.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a house, formerly subdivided, and outbuilding retaining definite early C19 character, and for its contribution to the historical integrity of Wexham Street.