Tredean House,

Devauden Devauden ( cy, Y Dyfawden) is a village and community in Monmouthshire, southeast Wales. It is located between Chepstow and Monmouth near the top of the Trellech ridge on the B4293 road. The community covers an area of . The community includes th ...

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 ...

is a country house dating from 1901-02. It was designed in an

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

style by the architect Arthur Jessop Hardwick. The client was a Henry Simpson. The house, 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 ...

, remains a private residence and is not visible from the public highway, although the gatehouse can be seen.

History

In the early 20th century the

Dukes of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort (), a title in the Peerage of England, was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of So ...

sold off their extensive Monmouthshire estates, centred on

Troy House Troy House is a List of historic houses in Wales, Welsh historic house, on a "ducal" scale, north-east of Mitchel Troy, Monmouthshire. The original house belonged to Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy, of the Herbert family of Raglan Castle, who owned grea ...

. The site of Tredean was purchased by a Mr Henry Simpson, who began the construction of a large house in the Arts and Crafts style. His architect was Arthur Hardwick and the house was completed between 1901-02. Tredean remains a private house which was marketed for £2.25m in 2002. In 2022 the house, renamed Devauden Manor, was again for sale, with a guide price of £3.5M. The house cannot be seen from the road, although the lodge, also in private ownership and with its own Grade II listing, and which the architectural historian John Newman considered "pert", gives a flavour of the house's style.

Architecture and description

John Newman describes Tredean as "a large and ambitious house in a loose Voyseyesque style".

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 ...

records its terraced setting, on the side of a steep hill, "two-storey and-attic with a full basement due to the artificial ground level". It describes the interior as "more

Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

'olde English' than Voysey" and notes the "very high standard" of the house's restoration in the very late 20th century. The house is Grade II* listed, with the lodge, the stable block and garage, and the teahouse in the garden, all having their own Grade II listings. Coflein records that the house is "almost unaltered" since its construction. The rooms in the house include a panelled entrance hall with stained glass, a dining room and sitting room with some reproduction fittings in the original style, a billiard room and a bathroom of 1902 with its "tiling and sanitary ware all complete". The terraced gardens surrounding the house were developed later, c.1910, but follow the Arts and Crafts style.

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&q=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