Sniddlebog Cottage

Cadw's description

Location

Set back on the S side of a minor road between Iscoyd Park and Whitewell, approximately 550m NE 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 present Sniddlebog was built in the second half of the C19 on the site of a 'croft' purchased from Sir John Hanmer in 1833. It is therefore one of several cases where a late C19 smallholding can be shown to perpetuate an older tradition. The cottage is shown on the 1873 Ordnance Survey.

Exterior

A 1½-storey brick cottage with steep tile roof on overhanging eaves, and central brick stack. Openings have mostly segmental heads. In its gable-end front is a boarded door on the L side, and 2-light attic window. In the R side wall is a small-pane iron-frame window to the L and narrower 2-light casement to the R. The L side wall has a similar iron-frame window, and a lean-to on the L side with small-pane side window, boarded door and inserted window to its R. The rear gable end has an iron-frame window and 2-light casement above.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

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