Kemeys Manor
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Kemeys Manor, Langstone, Newport, Wales, is a
manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
dating from the 13th century. The family that built it was established in
South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
in the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
by Edward, Lord of Kemeys and the manor was held by his descendants until the 18th century. The building was greatly enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries and comprises a tower, hall and attached ranges. Kemeys is a
Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. A barn to the north of the house, and Kemeys Folly to the south, are both listed at Grade II. The park surrounding the house is listed Grade II on the
Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales is a heritage register of significant historic parks and gardens in Wales. It is maintained by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government. Th ...
. The manor and the folly remain private residences and are not open to the public.


History

Edward, Lord of Kemeys, established his family in South Wales in the early 13th century. Over the next five centuries the family married into many of the most prominent families in
Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
and
Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...
, and themselves became
High Sheriffs of Monmouthshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Monmouthshire, an office which was created in 1536 but not fully settled until 1540. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the shrievalty of Monmouthshire was abolished, and replaced ...
. In the late 17th century George Kemeys constructed a
folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...
to the south of the house as a hunting lodge, before ending the 500-year connection between the house and the family by selling the estate in the early 18th century. The manor has subsequently had a number of owners, and the folly has been separated from the estate, having been converted to a house in 1911-1912 after a severe fire, and again rebuilt in the early 21st century.


Kemeys Folly

The folly is situated on an
escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...
to the south of the house and offers views from both sides; to the north into Wales and to the south, across the
Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...
into
Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...
. Archdeacon Coxe admired them and wrote a description in his two-volume, ''An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire'', published in 1801; "Kemeys Folly comprehends a full prospect of the rich and extensive region on each side, combined into one grand and sublime view which is scarcely equalled in any other part of Monmouthshire." The author and illustrator
Fred Hando Frederick James Hando MBE (23 March 1888 – 17 February 1970) was a Welsh writer, artist and schoolteacher from Newport. He chronicled the history, character and folklore of Monmouthshire, which he also called Gwent, in a series of nearly 8 ...
also visited and wrote an article on the manor and folly for the
South Wales Argus The ''South Wales Argus'' is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Newport, South Wales. ''The Argus'' is distributed in Newport, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, and Torfaen. History The paper was founded as the ''South Wales Arg ...
, subsequently published in his volume, ''The Pleasant Land of Gwent''. Hando recorded the reputed exchange between George Kemeys and his uncle; "From it I can see eleven counties - Then eleven counties can see thy folly".
Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage s ...
’s listing record indicates that the reconstruction after the 1910 fire was carried out by T. E. Watson, a Newport
colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
owner, as a memorial to John Lawrence and Horton Addams-Williams, but gives no further details regarding these individuals.


Architecture and description

Cadw describes Kemeys Manor as a "well-preserved 16th century manor house". The architectural historian John Newman, in his ''Gwent/Monmouthshire'' volume of the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, notes that the
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
origins of the house can still be seen in the base of the tower. The majority of the building is later, mainly dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and comprises a hall with attached ranges. It is of two storeys with a
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
roof and
mullioned A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
windows. Newman also records some "impressive" 17th century
plasterwork Plasterwork is construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior or exterior wall structure, or plaster Molding (decorative), decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. This is also sometimes called parge ...
in the interior of the house. Hando noted that the hall of the manor contained rows of pegs, used for stretching harp strings. The
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW; cy, Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru; ), established in 1908, is a Welsh Government sponsored body concerned with some aspects of the archaeological, architectura ...
records that the grounds of the house include walls and terraces from the
Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...
and are little altered from the time of their construction in the 16th century. The gardens are listed at Grade II on the
Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales is a heritage register of significant historic parks and gardens in Wales. It is maintained by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government. Th ...
. The folly is a square tower with a
turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...
, both
crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
, and extensions dating from the early 21st century. Kemeys Manor is a
Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. A barn to the north of the house, and the folly to the south, are both listed at Grade II.


Notes


References


Sources

* * * {{Cite book , last=Newman, first=John , authorlink=John Newman (architectural historian) , series=The Buildings of Wales , title=Gwent/Monmouthshire , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knRf4U60QjcC&dq=The+Buildings+of+Wales%3A+Gwent%2FMonmouthshire&pg=PA2 , year=2000 , publisher=Penguin , location=London , isbn=0-14-071053-1 Grade II* listed buildings in Newport, Wales Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales Country houses in Wales Grade II* listed houses Folly buildings in Wales