is a country house and farm north-west of Monmouth, south-east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The house was built around 1830 and was designed by the noted Monmouth architect

George Vaughan Maddox George Vaughan Maddox (1802–27 February 1864) was a nineteenth-century British architect and builder, whose work was undertaken principally in the town of Monmouth, Wales, and in the wider county. Working mainly in a Neo-Classical style, hi ...

. It has been listed as Grade II since 1974. Part of the estate is being developed for housing, under the name Parc Glyndwr. During archaeological investigations in advance of development, excavations revealed the remains of a

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

crannog A crannog (; ga, crannóg ; gd, crannag ) is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were bu ...

built on a man-made island away from the shore of a now-vanished lake, as well as evidence of a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

boatbuilding Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and methods Wood Wo ...

community on the site.

Etymology

The house name means "bull's croft". "'" is a Welsh word borrowed from the English "bull" and it appears in written form for the first time in 1253: '. The native and older word for bull in Welsh is "'", which is much more common. "'" also appears in placenames in Mid-Wales e.g. Carreg-y-Bwla, a working farm between

Llangurig Llangurig is both a village and a community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. The population was 723 in the 2011 UK Census. The community includes the hamlet of Cwmbelan. The River Wye, the A470 and the A44 trunk roads pass through Llangurig, ...

and

Rhayader Rhayader (; cy, Rhaeadr Gwy; ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is locate ...

History and architecture

Croft-Y-Bwla was built in about 1830 for Thomas Dyke, a Monmouth

grocer A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

, and was designed by G.V. Maddox.John Newman, ''The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire'', Penguin Books, 2000, , p.410 It is sited on a low spur of land with a distant view of the town. The two-storey house is of classical design, square in plan with three bays on each side. The walls are smoothly rendered. The entrance porch is of greenish stone from the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...

, with a pair of Doric columns. On the south-east side there is a

verandah A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''vera ...

, described in 2000 as "exquisite" but "much decayed". The house also has stables dating from the mid-19th century, and a single-storey roadside lodge also believed to have been designed by Maddox. The estate includes a garden lodge, carriage drive, parkland, greenhouse and conservatory. The actress

Helen Barry Helen Barry (born Elizabeth Short, 5 January 1840 – 20 July 1904) was an English actress. She began her acting career at age 32 after her first marriage dissolved. She performed leading roles in West End theatres in the 1870s in comedy, dram ...

once lived at the house with her husband Major

Alexander Rolls Major Alexander Rolls (18 July 1818 – 22 April 1882) was a native of Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. A member of the renowned Rolls family of The Hendre at Llangattock-Vibon-Avel near Monmouth, Monmouthshire, his life in public serv ...

(1818–1882), who was

Mayor of Monmouth The Mayor of Monmouth is an elected position given to a town councillor in Monmouth in Wales. The position dates back about 750 years. History The position of Mayor in Monmouth was established in the thirteenth century by the people who were ...

between 1870 and 1874 and the brother of

John Etherington Welch Rolls John Etherington Welch Rolls (4 May 1807 – 27 May 1870) was a High Sheriff of Monmouthshire, art collector, Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace. Rolls was President of, and co-founded the Monmouth Show. Life Rolls was born in 1807, a so ...

. Keith Kissack, ''Victorian Monmouth'', The Monmouth Historical and Educational trust, , page 45 Col J.H. Walwyn (1850–1900), Mayor of Monmouth in 1896, and his son Capt Fulke Walwyn D.S.O. lived at the house for a number of years. Capt Fulke Walwyn was one of the first wounded to return to Monmouth in 1914 following the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1932 it was occupied by the

Sheriff 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 replac ...

, the shipping magnate and MP, Sir

William Henry Seager Sir William Henry Seager (1862 – 10 March 1941) was a Welsh shipping magnate and Liberal Party politician who spent four years as a Member of Parliament (MP). Life The Seager family were originally from Ilfracombe, Devon, but moved to ...

Development

planning application Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

to develop part of the area for housing was first submitted in 2004. Several later proposals were made, to develop up to 145 dwellings on the site. The proposal was subsequently promoted for development through

Monmouthshire County Council Monmouthshire County Council (or simply Monmouthshire Council) ( cy, Cyngor Sir Fynwy) is the governing body for the Monmouthshire principal area – one of the unitary authorities of Wales. The current unitary authority was created in 1996 a ...

's Local Development Plan, and a sustainability assessment of the site was undertaken. In 2011 planning permission was sought to develop the grounds into a golf course, driving range, hotel and conference centre. Development of part of the site for housing is taking place in 2012, with the estate being called "" by Charles Church Developments. It is promoted as "contemporary development, comprising a range of stylish 3 and 4 bedroom homes

hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

offers well-proportioned living accommodation in a sought-after location."

Archaeological discoveries

Evidence of a

community, including three long channels adjoining the site of a now-vanished lake, was discovered in September 2013, during archaeological investigations by the

Monmouth Archaeological Society The Monmouth Archaeological Society is a society of amateur and professional archaeologists who encourage the preservation of archaeological artifacts and sites, publish, and carry out archaeological studies in and around Monmouth, Wales. Hist ...

of the Parc Glyndwr housing development site, immediately north-west of the town. The excavations later revealed the remains of a

. The dwelling was constructed on stilts on a man-made island away from the lake shore in water up to deep. Oak timbers had been "skillfully" cut with stone or flint axes to form stilts, of posts and poles, which probably rested on three parallel fully-grown tree 'sleeper beams', up to wide, laid horizontally on the lake bed. Timbers from the structure were

radiocarbon dated Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

to 4867 years before present (BP).

Notes

{{Buildings in Monmouth Houses in Monmouth, Wales Grade II listed buildings in Monmouthshire Country houses in Monmouthshire Grade II listed houses 1830 establishments in the United Kingdom