1 Smokey Lane

Cadw's description

Location

Set back on the N side of a lane approximately 0.9km NW of Whitewell church.

History

Iscoyd Park was purchased in 1843 by Philip Lake Godsal, a Cheltenham coach builder, an estate of 202 acres (82 hectares) comprising mansion house with park, and cottages and smallholdings. Over subsequent decades farms were acquired from neighbouring landowners, mainly during the ownership of Philip William Godsal, who inherited in 1858 and died in 1896. In 1895 it was reported to the Royal Commission on Land in Wales and Monmouthshire that the Iscoyd Park estate, now expanded to 887 acres (359 hectares), had 9 farms. Of these 'six new farmhouses, bricked and slated, and homesteads to them, have been built new entirely' and 'sixteen cottages and buildings for pigs and cows have been erected'. The latter smallholdings include many that were built on the site of earlier smallholdings.

No 1 Smokey Lane is dated 1867.

Exterior

A 1½-storey cottage of brick with steep tile roof on overhanging eaves, and central brick stack. A dentil band is between storeys. Openings have segmental heads and most windows have original small-pane iron-frame glazing. The gable end front has a boarded door on the R, window on the L, with 2 narrower windows above. Beneath the apex is a freestone tablet inscribed 'PWG 1867'. In the R side wall is an iron-frame window and a replacement window to the R under a square head. The L side wall has 2 narrow windows. In the rear gable end is a lean-to with a boarded door and window, above which is a window in the gable.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as part of a well-preserved C19 smallholding characteristic of the Iscoyd Park estate style, and for its contribution to the distinctive historic character of the district provided by surviving former estate buildings, which together provide a good example of estate-sponsored improvement.