Pencoed

Pencoed is a large house, originally with early origins, later converted into a gentleman’s farmhouse. The main structure is built of stone rubble, showing evidence of different construction phases, with brick surrounds to the windows and some tooled quoins. The side is roughcast, and the roof is covered in Welsh slate, stepped down to the right, with a brick ridge and corniced end stacks.

The house has a long main range with an unusually sited front cross wing. A moulded, pointed arch doorway, with stone steps leading up to a boarded door with a glazed lattice panel and antiquarian fittings—including a grille, knocker, and lantern—is situated to the right. Above the door is a six-pane casement window, similar to others on the main frontage. Projecting to the left is a lower, gabled cross wing with twelve-pane windows on each floor of the gable end. The main range extends to the left, with three asymmetrically sited first-floor windows, and two ground-floor windows either side of the doorway, all with cambered heads. A blocked lancet window is set in the left gable end. A single-storey former cartshed range, with iron piers, is attached below.

The side elevation to the right features a wide external stack with offsets and a curved, single-storey passage linking with the former farm range. The end wall of the former farm range has a distinctive double piscina-like feature. The rear elevation has similar windows with brick surrounds to the end unit on the left, and a doorway with a slate hood. Significant evidence of alteration and rebuilding is visible in the masonry to the right of the rear elevation, where there are two paired pointed arched lights under hoodmoulds and a similar four-light version on the ground floor. Some of these openings appear to have been restored. Other openings have brick dressings. A lower, limewashed range, formerly stables, is attached at the rear (northwest), now partly incorporated into the dwelling. This range has cambered-headed openings, flat eaves, some altered, some blocked, and a stable door with steps leading to a loft in the gable end.

Inside, the house consists of a succession of single-width units, with a kitchen at the southeast and a hall at the northwest. A sitting room is located in the cross wing and is accessed from the hall. A passage behind the hall now provides access to the incorporated former farm range to the rear. The hall features a wide stone fireplace with a four-centred arch bearing the inscription 'Heb Dhyw Heb Dyn Dyw A Digon,' surrounded by a decorative vine scroll. This fireplace stands in front of an older fireplace with a massive lintel. The ceiling features a grid of reeded beams, and there is a flag floor; moulded pointed arched openings, a large moulded arched doorway to the main entrance, and smaller, chamfered openings to the sitting room. A deep splay is present on the smaller opening adjacent. The mortices in one beam suggest the site of a former screens passage. Stairs rise from the hall. Upstairs, a passage has been created along the frontage, with further chamfered pointed arches—one with broach stops to the room above the sitting room and another along the passage, possibly formerly giving access to external steps. The main bedroom has a moulded fireplace with an older one behind, and high, moulded, corbelled beams.