Trefenty

Cadw's description

Location

Situated about 3 km S of Llanfihangel Abercowin new church, at the end of a drive which continues as a footpath to the old church

History

Double pile house now of late C18 to early C19 character, but the steep roofs and double-pile plan perhaps indicating a progressive remodelling around an older core. Trefenty was the ancient caput of the lordship of Oysterlow, owned in the late C16 by Sir John Perrot. His daughter and heiress lived here with her husband, the noted scholar and astronomer, Sir William Lower of St. Wynnows, Cornwall. He died in 1615, succeeded by his son Thomas (d 1661) and then by his daughter Dorothy, Lady Drummond. Her daughter married Edmund Plowden of Plowden Hall, Salop. (d 1671), and the house was tenanted thereafter. In 1811, Thomas Waters of Trefenty established a bank in Carmarthen. His son, John Waters (d 1852), was the last person to be buried at the old parish church. Samuel Marsh was living here in 1861. It was sold by the Plowdens to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the 1870s, and transferred in 1920 to the University of Wales.

Exterior

Substantial 3-storey C18 house comprising two parallel 3-window ranges, in unpainted roughcast with painted timber sashes throughout and slated roofs.
E facade has 6-pane sashes to attic, the rest 12-pane, with stone sills and original timber door to R bay. Painted bracketed eaves, cast-iron gutters and downpipe. Door is part-obscured by projecting single-storey addition with long shallow outshut roof S over C20 door and window. Tall red brick stack on extension roof N.
W facade resembles E, with 6-pane sashes to upper storey, 12-pane sashes to rest. Central gabled porch in roughcast with slated roof. Small window to porch W gable, door to N side. Similar bracketed eaves and guttering to E facade.
S side has two plain, matching gables separated by a narrow channel, in which lies a pitched slated roof, terminating above a 12-pane sash window between the gables. Two central stacks are visible in valley, one tall red brick on rear wall of E front, shorter rendered stack on rear of W range. Ground floor S obscured by full-length lean-to with slated roof, slightly raised above late C20 door, slightly off centre to R. Two shallow C20 windows to L, C20 window to R. Half-glazed C20 door to E end wall.
N side has two similar plain gables but joined at attic level with central 8-pane window to attic. Chimney gables visible in valley, conjoined. Valley dormer to R has boarded timber door allowing roof access. Full-length lean-to as on S side but roof reaches higher obscuring first floor. C20 windows, and C20 further lean-to with corrugated roof.

Interior

Not available for inspection. Said to have been internally divided into two living units.

Reason for designation

Included as a historic farmhouse of gentry origins, of unusual double-pile design, the centrepiece of an important C19 model farm.