Castle Godwyn

Castle Godwyn is a country house situated within its grounds, built in the early to mid-18th century with later 19th-century additions. The principal facades are limestone ashlar, while elsewhere the construction is of coursed and squared stone, all topped with a stone slate roof. The house comprises a compact main block with a symmetrical classical front, a service wing to the left, and a two-storied semicircular bay at the rear executed in a Gothic style.

The main block is two stories high with a basement and attic, featuring a five-window front. The upper sashes of the eight-pane windows are pointed, with moulded architraves, a keystone, and a moulded string course. The upper windows have panelled aprons and console blocks below the sills. A central, pedimented porch features paired glazed doors within an architrave and rusticated pilaster strips; the segmental pediment is adorned with a keyed oculus and is flanked by two gabled two-light dormers. Large external stacks are located on the coped gables to the left and right.

The left return presents an extended wing with two- and three-light stone mullioned casement windows arranged in a continuous strip. A ground-floor door features a deep transom light divided into two panes, with a stepped string course above. A small light is set within the gable. A lower, L-shaped wing to the side shows features from the 19th century. Steps lead down to the basement.

The north-facing entrance has a projecting gabled porch with a Tudor-style door surround. To the right are two plain chamfered mullion casement windows with hoods, and a four-light window with a king mullion, believed to date from the 19th or 20th centuries. The first floor has three chamfered mullion casement windows with hoods, a similar three-light window from the 19th century, two gabled dormers, and a paired dormer, with single lights flanking the external stack.

The rear semicircular bay has paired Gothic casements with plain chamfered Y-tracery.

The interior retains a good 18th-century staircase with three barley-sugar twist balusters per tread, scrolled tread ends, and a 13-arched, fluted Doric screen on the first floor. The drawing room has a pedimented and enriched mantelpiece. An adjoining room features a Gothic fire surround and a large open stone fireplace in the kitchen. Contemporary shutters are present on the windows, some of which are heavy chamfered beams.

The house demonstrates an interesting combination of 17th, 18th, and 19th-century design elements. A plan dating from 1741 reveals the main pedimented front as it appears today, but without the projecting porch.