Clochfaen

Clochfaen

This house is aligned roughly north to south along the slope contours. It comprises a timber-framed and roughcast-rendered 1915 section, with whitewashed stone elsewhere and slate roofs (originally random Preseli slate, now regular Spanish) throughout, with brick chimney stacks.

The composition balances the recessed main timber-framed 1915 range against the earlier range, itself balanced by the cross-wing of the 1915 addition. The eastern entrance front is dominated by the timber-framed 1915 range: a two-bay range with a jettied upper storey and central entrance beneath a shallow gabled porch with continuous small-paned iron glazing flanking a boarded and ribbed door, with the date marked in a plastered roundel at the apex. The porch is flanked by long five-light mullioned and transomed windows with small-paned iron glazing on both floors. To the right, the junction with the earlier range is achieved by an over-sailing roof across an angled corner that matches a canted full-height bay window in the gable of the earlier range. Advanced to the left is the cross-wing of the 1915 house, with mullioned and transomed windows in its gable end.

The garden front is asymmetrically composed with a storeyed gabled porch offset to the left, featuring a small gabled canopy over the doorway and continuous small-paned glazing to both floors with tall upper windows with transoms. A panel over the door reads 'This house was built by Harry Lloyd Verney and Joan his wife AD 1915'. The right-hand section is distinguished by jettying including its gable end, with the principal room emphasised by a large five-light transomed window; the smaller sitting room to the left has a correspondingly smaller three-light mullioned window with no jettying. Upper windows are of three, two and four lights, set immediately below the eaves.

Beyond the 1915 building, the earlier buildings form a service range of whitewashed rubble stone with slate roof stepped down to accommodate the lower former farm-range to the right. A doorway in a close-studded timber-framed gabled porch is positioned towards the left end of the range. The range features irregular fenestration with bullnose brick surrounds and segmentally arched heads, and various twentieth-century wooden windows. Two gabled oriel windows flank a raking dormer to the first floor on either side of the doorway, and a full-height canted bay window occupies the left-hand gable return. The continuation of this range to the right, formerly the farm-range, still shows arched former cart-entries. Above them are three wide gabled half-dormers with six-light mullioned and transomed windows lighting the upper hall within. A large clock is positioned between the left and central windows. The rear has irregular fenestration and remains of a veranda which formerly linked the 1915 house with the earlier range.

The original layout and much detail of the 1915 house survives intact. Its main range housed the hall and dining room, with the entrance porch giving access directly to the hall via a small angled lobby. Beyond the dining room, to the rear of the earlier range, were small service rooms, a back stairs and a garden room, with a corridor running to the rear of the dining room to provide independent access to the hall. The garden wing houses the staircase, lit by the upper window of the porch, with drawing room to the east and small sitting room and former gun-room to the west.

Much original detail was brought into the house during the 1915 phase, originating from various London houses, with their eighteenth-century character echoed in the 1915 work. The hall and library features an egg-and-dart plaster cornice introduced from a London house in 1915, and the tiled round-arched fireplace has a scrolled mantelpiece reputedly taken from Nell Gwynne's house. A notional inglenook is suggested by the positioning of a longitudinal beam, with a small raised seating alcove and its own small window at the rear. Built-in bookcases were present (some lost to dry rot). From the hall a wide doorway opens into the stair-hall, where paired timber arches with pendant keys define the foot of the stairs and hallway; a dog-leg staircase has fine twisted spindles. The drawing room in the garden wing has a fine eighteenth-century marble fireplace with hob-grate. The small sitting room at the rear also has an eighteenth-century fireplace and faux wall panelling (some removed on inspection in July 2005). Upper rooms also have good eighteenth-century fireplaces derived from London properties. Internal doors are mainly plywood (attributed to wartime material shortages) except for one solid door with glazed arched panels and bolection moulding to the bathroom in the garden wing.

In the service range, the ground floor layout, having been altered, was partially reinstated to its earlier twentieth-century arrangement. The first floor 'tenants hall' had also been subdivided and was in the process of restoration on inspection in July 2005, with fireplaces, clock surround and gallery being modern reconstructions. The complex roof trusses articulating the hall with paired collars and hammer-beams were modified and embellished by Benson, who also added the gallery.