Ashbrook House (The Kilvert Gallery)

Location

Lies at north-east end of Clyro village. Prominent position fronting main through road. Clyro brook runs through a culvert on the south side of the property.

History

c 1852, built for the agent of the Clyro Court estate. The front door leads into a small room which was used for wage payments, rent audits etc. The diarist Rev Francis Kilvert, curate of Clyro, lodged at Ashbrook House from 1865-1872 and is commemorated by a stone plaque on the front wall. He refers to it in the diaries as Ty Dulas and it is during his Clyro years that the most highly regarded volumes of his Diary were written.

Exterior

L-plan, two storeys with basement and attics, lower service range at south-east end. Stone, part roughcast render to rear elevations. Slate roof, boxed eaves, rubble stacks. Mostly twelve-pane sash windows with machine-tooled stone lintels and cills. Six-panel front door up steps in corner of north-west front. Side door next to shuttered French window under slate-roofed verandah, verandah and forecourt have plain hooped railings. North-east side has exceptionally large multipane staircase window with intersecting glazing bars and smaller attic dormer above in Regency Gothic style - small pane glazing and intersecting tracery under pointed arch heads. Basement door in similar pointed arched opening.

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Interior

Good survival of original features and fittings except for some fireplaces. Six-panel doors to principal rooms, boarded to service rooms. Re-used panelling in attics and basement (said to have come from old Clyro church).

Reason for designation

Graded II* primarily for the historic associations with Rev Francis Kilvert.

Group value with neighbouring listed items.