Trostrey Court

Trostrey Court

A house of rubble stone with slate roofs and roughcast stacks, laid out in T-plan with the main range facing northwest, an earlier 18th-century northeast gabled wing of brick (rendered and refenestrated in the late 19th century with bargeboards added), and an original southeast gabled wing. The building is two storeys with an attic throughout.

The main 5-window range features a small rebuilt right-end stack, a large triple stack on the ridge to the left of the porch with chamfered angles to each shaft, and a smaller stack on the ridge at the join with the northeast wing, the centre shaft set diagonally. A prominent centre porch bay with two jetties (the lower one with pendants) is clad in 20th-century lapboard with 20th-century metal windows at the attic and first floor. The stone ground floor has a moulded ashlar Tudor-arched entry with two seats within, a small chamfered light to the left side, and a Tudor-arched inner doorway with a studded plank door with strap hinges. To the right of the porch, a two-window range has 20th-century metal windows with timber lintels above: a 2-light window to the left and a broader one to the right; the ground floor has renewed timber windows with timber lintels, a cross-window to the left and a triple window with top-lights to the right. To the left of the porch, a 2-window range has 20th-century hardwood windows with top-lights and tooled stone sills.

The west end wall is rebuilt and rendered with raking buttresses, showing the remnant of a former lean-to. The rear is entirely rewindowed, with large windows on each floor to the left and a door, then stair windows on three levels in line with the main stack, a long window also lighting the stair, and finally a window on each floor in the angle to the cross-wing.

The cross-wing displays sand-textured paint on its southwest side. A stair-projection rises in the angle to the rear of the main range with a mid-height window, a tiny window at the top left, and then a 3-storey single-window range to the right, with large windows at ground and first floors both having top-lights. The south end gable is of rubble stone with a large 3-shaft roughcast end stack and a glazed ground floor door with side-lights.

The rendered northeast side of the cross-wing is mostly windowless to the left, with a first-floor cross-window and a first-floor door accessed by steps in the angle to the end gable of the main range. This projects with an end stack and 19th-century stucco detailing. The northeast wing, which continues to a gable end standing forward of the main house façade at the left end, has 19th-century bargeboards, an attic 20th-century long light, and a first-floor 19th-century cross-window. Despite these details, the wing is of brick, dating from circa 1700.

The building was not available for inspection at the time of survey; information was compiled from 1980 and 1989 reports.

The interior contains a wealth of woodwork, none earlier than the late 16th century, with some from the mid-17th century and some from the early 18th century. The porch opens into a passage behind the hall fireplace, and a later 17th-century dog-leg staircase has been inserted into the passage. The staircase has four flights with finials to newels, a heavy rail with a rounded grip, and splat balusters. The hall has been subdivided with the fireplace largely infilled, and there is a passage behind leading to the rear southeast wing. The room to the right of the entrance passage has a concealed post-and-panel partition and has been subdivided for a modern kitchen; there is no sign of an original kitchen fireplace, possibly because the west end wall has been rebuilt.

The hall contains a fine dais-end post and panel partition, massive in scale with scribed mouldings to studs and two doorways, that to the right probably original though missing the doorhead. The wall narrows close to a closet by the fireplace on the rear wall, which may indicate a lost lateral fireplace. Double-framed ceilings feature close-spaced beams, all with plain stepped hollow stops. An inner room divided in two contains a small parlour with a corner fireplace and bolection-moulded panelling of circa 1700. A small stone stair leads down to a brick vaulted basement beneath the early 18th-century addition. The southeast wing opened off the dais-end of the hall and has a stair tower in the angle. A massive doorway in a small lobby accesses a winding stair with timber possibly a 18th-century replacement, featuring twisted balusters and enriched panelling. Opposite, a small service room is divided by a post-and-panel partition from the southeast end parlour, which has complete moulded panelling of small fielded panels and beams with later plaster embellishment comprising modillion brackets and dentils.

Upstairs, a panelled room over the porch has a dentilled and bracketed cornice and an elaborate overmantel said to be similar to one at Great House, Llangattock. Important carved friezes in scalloped patterns appear in the left-hand first-floor room, which has a square-headed doorway with ogee stops; a similar doorway appears in a partition wall within. This may relate to the later 17th-century inserted staircase. The rear room has a similar carved strip over the fireplace. A corner room is said to have small fielded panelling. The room alongside to the east was a store enlarged as a kitchen. The east chamber over the parlour is lined with small fielded panelling. The early 18th-century wing has a first-floor small chamber and closet alongside lined with bolection-moulded panelling, both with corner fireplaces. A priests' hiding hole is reputed to be behind the small chamber fireplace. A very wide 17th-century loft door with a chamfered wooden frame is present. The attic features plain and massive collar trusses.

Bolection-moulded panelling and doors are found in the northeast wing.