Farm buildings at Higher Lanes Farm

Cadw's description

Location

On the N side of the farmhouse.

History

Iscoyd Park was purchased in 1843 by Philip Lake Godsal, a Cheltenham coach builder, and comprised an estate of 202 acres (82 hectares) including 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, including Higher Lanes. 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'.

Higher Lanes Farm is dated 1869. The farm buildings are probably contemporary with the house, but the higher section was later extended or rebuilt. They housed a shippon in the lower section, and probably a stable and further livestock accommodation in the higher section.

Exterior

Two ranges placed end-to-end, of brick with tile roofs. The higher lofted section on the L side has a full-height joint to the centre, indicating a later extension or rebuilding of the L side. Two pairs of doors are R and L of this joint, the R-hand below a loading door, with segmental-headed split boarded door further R and boarded opening to the L. The lower shippon is wider and projects beyond the line of the higher section in both elevations. Facing the yard it has 2 split boarded doors flanking a central window in a former doorway.

The rear elevation of the shippon has a central door flanked by windows, and the higher section retains a segmental-headed split boarded door to the L, and corrugated-iron lean-to to its R.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

Listed for group value with the farmhouse, and for its overall contribution to the distinctive historic character of the district provided by surviving former Iscoyd Park estate buildings, which together provide a good example of estate-sponsored improvement.