EV-0630 — H. J. Thomas sketch plan and notes, Great House Farm, visited 26 April 1974 (NMR record card)

Catalogue record

Transcript

Card header: "Great House Farm" · Class 10C · CO GL · NAT. GRID ST | 17 | SE, 16 [80] 73 [31] · Eccl. parish: Llandough-juxta-Cardiff · 6-in. map 47 NE · stamp "NATIONAL MONUMENTS RECORD · RCAHM WALES". Drawing titled "SKETCH PLAN", key: 17th cent.; 18th-early 19th cent.; 19th cent. Rooms labelled: Hall (with "Newel stair" / "Site of stair" and fireplace F), Passage, Kitchen (beams A, B, C), Dairy (cellar beneath), Entrance to cellar, 19th cent. addition; "Batter" on the north wall; "Sketch of beams A, B, C, D" with section (about 11 in.). Scale 0–20 ft.

Farmhouse situated on edge of steep scarp, north of Llandough churchyard. The external appearance i.e. the rendering, brick window surrounds, low pitched slate roof, and symmetrical front, immediately suggested a 19th century date. However examination of interior suggested much earlier date. In plan the house consists of three rooms on the ground floor (aligned E–W); on the east side a kitchen 16ft. 1ins. x 15ft. 6ins. having large fireplace (recently rebuilt on old lines) in east wall. Three beams survive, these being fairly massive about 11ins square (the upper part and joists concealed by plaster ceiling), adze cut, with plain broad chamfer and ogee stops. To the west another chamber, probably the hall, separated by a passage 5ft. x 15ft. 3ins. which appears originally to have had opposed doors in the lateral walls. On the east wall face of the passage there survives another beam, also broad chamfered with ogee stops. The western chamber, the 'hall', measured 15ft. 11ins. by 15ft. 3ins. and possessed a large fireplace in the west gable wall, also a newel stair in the N.W. angle, both features now concealed. No original beams here surviving, these having been removed about 25 years ago.

The general plan, plus the fairly thick walls and the broad chamfered beams, suggest a 17th century date, probably a Type A plan. On the north side of the house, a wing had been added, probably in the 18th or early 19th century, about 22ft. x 29ft. overall, containing a large chamber, stair well with wooden stair, and a small dairy; below the latter a cellar possessing a barrel-vaulted roof. On the east side of the house further extensions had been made in the 19th century. The house would appear, probably, to be 17th century in date, with 18th and 19th additions, the older portion extensively 'modernized' in the 19th century by raising of roof eaves, replacement of window surrounds etc.

Condition: much modernized. Visited 26 April 1974. H.J. Thomas.

Transcription note: Handwritten notes and sketch plan on a National Monuments Record (RCAHM Wales) card. Transcribed in full; a few words are hard to read and are given as read (the last digit of the visit year is small; it is read as 1974, matching the dated measured plan NA/GL/89/208). Words struck through on the card are left out. No names of private individuals appear.

Destination

• Where the original is held: Original card: RCAHMW, National Monuments Record of Wales, Aberystwyth (the NMR references for the H. J. Thomas material are listed under EV-0047). Copy held by the family.
• On this site: this artifact page, listed in the Evidence Register, and cited from the 1988: Possession and Demolition page.
• Image: the copy held is not reproduced here; the transcript stands in for it (third-party copyright).

Interpretation

A field record made inside the house on 26 April 1974: three ground-floor rooms with a cross passage, adze-cut beams with ogee stops, a west-gable fireplace and newel stair, and a north wing over a barrel-vaulted cellar. It dates the core to the seventeenth century, probably a "Type A" plan, and records that the hall beams had been removed about 25 years earlier. This is the 1974 inspection that NA/GL/88/49 cites.

Related records

• Cited by: EV-0629
• Companion record: EV-0631
• Related record: EV-0047