This is the second site I visited in February 2008 whilst on an Urbex* meet in South Wales (see the previous post for the first one). I had a look to see if there was any more information or if the place had been demolished or rescued since I wrote the article on my now defunct website. I did find the entry on the British Listing for the farmhouse, which I neglected to do before. I also tracked it down on street view, where part of it could be seen from the road, which was nice to see.
As I said on my website in the scanty history that I knew at the time, there had been a planning application in 2004 and the land on and surrounding belonged to Terry Mathews, owner of the Celtic Manor and hoster of the 2010 Ryder Cup. Also, the farm couldn't be demolished because it was grade listed and bats were roosting there. However, it was very derelict when we had a look around and later reports on urbex websites showed extensive damage due to arson.
The farmhouse, above and below. Listed as a Grade II building, due to retaining its historical character as an early C17 large Monmouthshire farmhouse. Built in 1604, it comprises two and a half storeys with an attached barn incorporating the remains of the Mediaeval chapel of St Curig.
Apparently there was a date stone above the door, which I missed seeing, bearing the legend "John Thomas 1604".
I'm not sure where the two photos above fit in. I think the door on the left went in - or out of - the room on the right. That room may have been the kitchen or part of the attached barn. I really haven't a clue, but I'm guessing by the order in which I took the photos (starting with the barns, incidentally, which always makes it difficult when you want to present the tour differently!).
The living room, with French windows above. The stencilled ivy was lurking on the wall behind the interior door.
I can't remember exactly what the wording said, scrawled above the fireplace, but it was a fierce invective against the landlord...so presumably written by the former tenants.
A foray upstairs. Fortunately they were dry and stable. And the view from the window, complete with some real ivy. :)
The photos below were taken in one of the bedrooms.
The remaining photos were taken in the barn and outbuildings. I don't know which out of my photos shows the attached barn containing the mediaeval chapel, but I'll hazard a guess that it's the one below. It looks to me as if the three indentations were once windows, which were subsequently partially blocked up when utilised for a barn. Lovely old brick and flint rubble walls, too.
Fabulous shadows...
...wood, corrugated iron...
...and lovely silouettes.
The last two were taken outside and it is this run of outbuildings that I saw from the road on street view. They look a lot better there than they do here though, therefore probably been restored.
Something I forgot to mention on the first explore (previous post) is that this was a weekend meet-up, and these two took place on the Saturday. More to come for this day on the next two articles. :)
*Urbex is a shortened form of Urban Exploring, which is exploring abandoned and derelict places, plus other 'out of bounds' sites, and usually documenting it with history and photos on a website and/or Urbex forum.
No comments:
Post a Comment