Smiths Row (also known as Blcksmiths Cottages) is a Grade II listed building in the Vale of Glamorgan local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 31 July 1995. A Early Modern Cottages.

Smiths Row (also known as Blcksmiths Cottages)

WRENN ID
rooted-bailey-ochre
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Vale of Glamorgan
Constituency
Vale of Glamorgan MP: Kanishka Narayan (Lab)
Country
Wales
Date first listed
31 July 1995
Type
Cottages
Period
Early Modern
Address
Smiths Row (also known as Blcksmiths Cottages), 5 A48, St Nicolas, St. Nicholas and Bonvilston
OS grid reference
ST 089 742
Coordinates
51.46009, -3.31126
Source
Cadw listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Smiths Row, also known as Blacksmiths Cottages, is a two-story building featuring limewashed rubble walls topped with a long straw thatched roof, which has "eyebrows" over the first-floor windows. The front elevation includes seven two-light 19th-century timber casement windows on the first floor and six two-light casement windows of various styles on the ground floor. There are four 20th-century brick chimney stacks, three of which are axial, with the westernmost being gabled. The front elevation is supported by seven buttresses, three of which are made of rubble at the eastern end, while the others are modern concrete. The rear elevation has three 19th-century lean-to scullery outshuts with slated roofs and timber casements. The eastern gable features a blocked early 17th-century single light window with ferramenta at first-floor level, which has sunk chamfered jambs and a hollow chamfered head beneath a fragmentary hoodmould.

The easternmost cottage (No 5) dates from the early 17th century and has a two-cell, lobby entry plan with substantial back-to-back fireplaces that retain timber lintels. There is a cross-corner stone stair on the northern side of the fireplace without an outshut. The eastern hall cell was previously lit by a three-light window on the south elevation, which is beneath a relieving arch. The ceiling over the hall cell is supported by lateral quarter-round moulded beams and has thirteen complexly reed-moulded joists in each bay. The western cell features a joist beam ceiling and a modern straight flight staircase. The central cottage (No 4) appears to have originally been a single-story workshop, possibly contemporary with the eastern cottage, which was raised to full two-story height likely in the late 18th or early 19th century. The western cottage, dating from around 1700, consists of two cells with a central axial and gable stack at the western end, designed in a hearth passage form with a hall and outer room. The passage is located to the west of the axial stack, and there is a gable entry timber spiral stair on the northern side of the axial stack.

Local climate

Smiths Row (also known as Blcksmiths Cottages) sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,110 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 90% 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.

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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Smiths Row (also known as Blacksmiths Cottages) Grade II 9 m
  2. Blacksmith's Cottages Grade II 20 m
  3. Church Hall House (former Cory Institute) Grade II 23 m
  4. Tinkins Hall (former Cory Institute) Grade II 31 m
  5. Telephone Call-box on corner with road to St Nicholas' Church Grade II 47 m
  6. GPO Pillar on corner with Road to St Nicholas' Church Grade II 47 m
  7. Parish Church of St Nicholas Grade II* 96 m
  8. Cory Family Chest-Tomb at Parish Church of St Nicholas Grade II 98 m
  9. The Three Tuns Grade II 194 m
  10. Cottrell Lodge Grade II 1.1 km