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Great House Farm, Llandough
Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 02038s
Trust : Glamorgan Gwent
Community : Llandough
Unitary authority : Vale of Glamorgan
NGR : ST16707335
Site Type (preferred type first) : POST MEDIEVAL - Farm
Summary :Great House Farmhouse and barn formed an attractive group. 17th-19th century.
Description :Great House Farmhouse and barn formed an attractive group, built of local lias limestone, and occupied an historic site next to the parish church. Finds of medieval ironwork and pottery have been reported from the site. Great House was the chief freehold farm of the parish and was occupied by the Vaughan's, a minor gentry family, from the mid C16th until the latter part of the C18th. Several memorial inscriptions relating to the family are preserved in the church and churchyard. In the early C19th the freehold was acquired by the Bute Estate and the manorial courts for Llandough and Leckwith were held in Great House.
Externally both farmhouse and barn appeared to be of C19th date. Internally, however, surviving vernacular detail- a blocked stone fireplace stair and agee-stopped beams- suggested a C17th date for the house. The ground floor of the house was surveyed in unusual circumstances in 1974 by H.J.T. Much detail was then concealed and it was not possible to examine the first floor and roof trusses. The house remained partially recorded because of problems of access created by an ownership dispute. The house and farm buildings were suddenly and completely demolished by B.P. Properties Ltd. on 6th December 1988 amid considerable local controversy.
The plan of Great House was not published in the Inventory of Farmhouses & Cottages because of the incompleteness of the available information but it was classified as a sub-medieval house of direct-entry type. However, certain features suggested that the core of the house may have been medieval. The clearly-defined cross-passage end-chimney plan with masonry partitions and external wall batter (on the unreconstructed N side) had clear affinities with Brynwell, a medieval farmhouse in the neighbouring parish of Leckwith, Brynwell was built as a direct-entry, end-chimney, storeyed pre-Reformation house (Inventory, pp.187, 192).
Brynwell, like Great House, was modernised in the C19th by the Bute Estate but the medieval date of the house is clearly shown by a small first-floor cusped-head window and the remodelled roof trusses. Unfortunately it was not possible to examine the fabric of Great House before the demolition of the house. Examination of the rubble brought to light no new features except an ogee-stopped beam with torus, a form of decoration that is not particularly common in Glamorgan (Inventory, Map 50).
Fireplace jamb since found. Written by R. F Sugget- December 1988. Report of 'armour' found under the floor of the rear wing at Great House c.1880. This seems to be the medieval ironwork found at Llandough now at the National Museum. The carved dressed-stone capital(?) kept by the front door of the house, presumably from the old church, was lost during the demolition. Sherds of C12th, C13th, and early C14th pottery found on steep slope immediately NE of house implying occupation of site at that date. (R.F.S.- Dec.1988). (RCAHMW)
Sources :
Bibby, P , 1989 , Battle of the rubble (
[image] © South Wales Echo)
GGAT , 1989 , GGAT Sites and Monuments Record 2038 (
[image] © Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust (GGAT))
GGAT , 1990 , Land at Great House Farm, Llandough. An Archaeological Assessment (
[image] © GGAT)
Robinson, D. , 1988 , Biglis, Caldicot and Llandough: Three Late Iron Age and Roman-British Sites in South-East Wales, Excavations 1977-79
Suggett, R.F.S. , 1988 , Great House Farm (
[image] © Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW))
01/mm record card/NMR//1988//;
02/pm desc/RCAHM//1988/Invent IV 2/p582 no 445
GGAT Assessment land at great house farm Llandough 1990
Events : GGATE000877 : Great House Farm (year : 1990)
GGATE003875 : Great House Farm, Llandough, Cardiff, South Glamorgan (year : 1994)
GGATE003872 : Land at Great House Farm, Llandough (year : 1990)
GGATE001585 : Great house farm (year : 2006)
GGATE003052 : Great House Farm SE (year : 2010)
GGATE003317 : Great House Farm, Michaelston Road (year : 2010)
GGATE004140 : Great House Farm Phase II, Green House, Michaelston Road (year : 2013)
Related recordsGGAT Historic Environment Record (HER)
2179SCompiled date : 21-08-1991
Last updated : 29-09-2026
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October 6, 2026, 9:51 pm
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