Great Tresenny Farmhouse, Grosmont, Monmouthshire is a farmhouse dating from c.1600. Situated just to the south of the village, the farmhouse 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 Ir ...

History

The origins of the house are of about 1600. Sir Cyril Fox and

Lord Raglan Baron Raglan, of Raglan in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 20 October 1852 for the military commander Lord FitzRoy Somerset, chiefly remembered as commander of the British troops ...

, who refer to the house as "Upper Tresenny" in their three-volume guide ''

Monmouthshire Houses ''Monmouthshire Houses: A Study of Building Techniques and Smaller House-Plans in the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries'' is a study of buildings within the county of Monmouthshire written by Sir Cyril Fox and Lord Raglan and published by the Na ...

'', consider that the style of the stone staircase supports this early dating. In about 1610, the parlour block was added to the existing hall block. Cadw records Fox and Raglan's explanation for the hiatus in building what was clearly intended as a single structure, namely that the 1600s house was constructed next to an earlier

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 period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

hall house which was then demolished when the builders were ready to construct the adjacent parlour block. Further extensions were undertaken in the 17th century. The farmhouse remains a private residence.

Architecture and description

The architectural historian John Newman describes Great Tresenny as "a fine unmodernised farmstead". It is of two storeys with the hall to the north, parlour to the south, and service rooms in the centre. The partitions on the ground floor which were noted by Fox and Raglan are "no longer visible". The farmhouse is constructed of

old red sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

which was once white-washed. Fox and Raglan note the exceptional height of the ground-floor rooms, indicating "the importance of the house" which is a

Notes

References

* * {{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 Monmouthshire Country houses in Wales