Great House is a Grade II listed building in the Vale of Glamorgan local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 28 January 1963. House. 1 related planning application.
Great House
- WRENN ID
- sunken-zinc-evening
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Constituency
- Vale of Glamorgan MP: Kanishka Narayan (Lab)
- Country
- Wales
- Date first listed
- 28 January 1963
- Type
- House
- Address
- Great House, Welsh St Donats, Cowbridge, Welsh St. Donats, CF71 7SS
- OS grid reference
- ST 027 761
- Coordinates
- 51.47626, -3.40119
- Source
- Cadw listing
Description
Great House is a Grade II listed building faced with roughcast cement render, featuring quoins, some stone dressings, stone coping, and a Welsh slate roof. The structure consists of a two-storey central block with three windows, flanked by lower two-storey wings, each also with three windows. The central block slightly projects forward and has a left-hand six-panel door with raised-and-fielded panels, though the bottom two panels are flush. Above the door is an arched fanlight with interlaced glazing bars, and the wooden doorcase is adorned with an open pediment on reeded pilasters. The windows are sash style with six over six panes, and the central and right-hand blocks have keyed stone architraves, while the left-hand block features windows with plain cement architraves. Both the central section and the wings have end gables, and each gable is topped with a stone stack that has moulded caps.
The rear elevation is more varied, indicating that the house may have been built in stages. The central section has two 19th-century tripartite sashes and a taller sash on the right for the stairs. The roof at the rear slopes lower than at the front and includes a tall central stack positioned halfway up the slope. The left wing has an additional stack and a dormer window, while the right wing features an altered gable and 20th-century windows. A large stone water tank is sunk against the rear wall to collect rainwater from the roof.
The interior details were not available at the time of resurvey, but previous records from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales indicate that the entrance hall is separated from the Hall by a thin partition, with a straight-flight staircase featuring half landings located at the rear of the entrance hall. The older left-hand block contains the kitchen, which has a large fireplace and a fire stair, along with an opening leading into the entrance hall. There is a large lateral fireplace in the Hall, and a service room is located in the outshut behind the Hall. The right-hand block includes the parlour and a narrow one-bay room accessed from the rear. It is unclear if these arrangements have been altered since the last inspection.
Local climate
Great House sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,150 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 92% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 21 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 78% of listed buildings. Of these, 8 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 2 transactions since 1997
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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