Y Dderw

Y Dderw is a gentry house of the second half of the 16th century, extended in the mid 17th century. The building is grade II* listed.

History and Context

The house was purchased by William Morgan of Ystradfellte, a barrister who died in 1584, after he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Morgan of Tredegar. His granddaughter married William Morgan of Machen around 1650, bringing the property into the extensive lands of the Morgans of Tredegar. During the 17th century it was tenanted by the Williams family, and in the 19th century it served as the home farm for Boughrood Castle under Hon. Frederick Morgan.

Exterior

The building is constructed of roughcast and painted stone with stone slate roofs and rises to two storeys with an attic. The original plan follows the classic gentry house layout with a central hall and cross passage behind a screen at the north-east end, featuring a lateral fireplace. A heated parlour with lateral stack occupies a cross wing at the south-west end, with a service wing at the north-east end. This plan was significantly enlarged in the mid 17th century by extending both wings to the rear. The parlour wing received a further reception room and stair, an additional room was added behind the original services, and the north-east wing was extended further to provide more service accommodation. Later alterations have respected the original form, introducing only a linking corridor between the rear wings and an open pentice around the re-entrant angle formed by the service wing additions, which continues along two 19th-century heated bays added in line.

The main south front displays a tall, late 18th or early 19th-century bracketed doorcase serving the cross passage. The windows were entirely replaced at the same period with chamfered stone frames, stone mullions, and label mouldings above. The hall range has 9-pane sashes and was given a gable at this time to accommodate Venetian tripartite 9-pane sashes to the attic chambers, with the centre sash featuring 'gothic' intersecting glazing bars. The parlour wing is gabled, with 4 × 3 pane sashes to ground and first floor, and 9-pane sashes to the attic. Windows generally retain crown glass. The service range has tripartite 4-pane sashes and paned casement windows to the attic gable, repeated on the extended bay. Bargeboards are present throughout. Three diagonally set moulded chimney shafts rise on the east gable, balanced by the stack at the south-west parlour end. A central boarded door gives access to the link corridor behind the hall, with various 19th-century windows elsewhere. The rear added bay of the parlour wing has a gable stack and 4-light chamfered frame windows to the first floor, 2-light windows to the ground floor, and attic level windows. The south-west elevation displays windows on two storeys matching the pattern of the main front.

Interior

The main stair is dog-legged oak with a very fine symmetrically turned balustrade and heavy rail. The main hall retains a lateral fireplace with a high-set timber lintel and canted sides beneath a plastered ceiling. The ceiling is divided by deep chamfered beams with finger-moulded margins, and a moulded arch frames the door from the corridor to the stair. The main parlour features a stone fireplace with a Tudor-shaped arch and wave-moulded surround ending in a pineapple-fleur-de-lys carved stop. A spiral stair in the service end is screened off and accessed from the cross passage, having monoxylous steps and a shaped doorframe at the bottom. 17th-century panelling has been refixed in the rear corridor. The roof was not inspected at the time of listing survey but is said to be original (May 1995).

Significance

Y Dderw is included at grade II* for retaining an important sub-medieval plan and well-preserved structure, with fine internal detail and good fenestration throughout.