Wonastow Court

Wonastow Court is a 16th-century manor house that was much reduced and partly rebuilt as a Georgian country house around 1803, while retaining fragments of its original fabric. It has an irregular U-shaped plan, with the Georgian house forming the main range—a rectangular double-pile structure on a south-west to north-east axis facing south-east—and portions of the earlier building forming tall set-back gabled wings linked to it at their inner corners. The main range is stuccoed, while the wings are mostly of random sandstone rubble with quoins.

The south-east facade of the main range is three storeys tall and symmetrical, with a 2:1:2 bay arrangement and a slightly projecting centre. It is finished with a cornice and a low parapet concealing a two-span hipped roof. At ground floor, the centre contains a porch with two Tuscan columns carrying a pedimented entablature, protecting a doorway with a moulded architrave and part-glazed door. Both main floors have twelve-paned hornless sash windows; the second floor has square six-pane sashes. All windows have raised sills and plain reveals; those at ground floor have internal shutters. Tall chimney stacks are positioned at the left end and near the right-hand end. The south-west return wall has one window on each floor close to the rear corner. The north-east return has openings near the rear corner: a round-headed doorway at ground floor protected by a flat-roofed Tuscan porch (which was dilapidated at the time of survey), and a square six-pane sash window at second floor. An added superstructure providing a link into the adjoining wing has been removed; the openings were covered by corrugated sheet at the time of survey.

The gable of the north-east wing has a blocked 16th-century Tudor-arched doorway (beneath the porch previously mentioned) with a moulded surround and an elaborately-carved Renaissance-style entablature featuring strapwork, a band of stylised flowers and a dentilled cornice. To the right of this is a six-pane sash. At first floor is a large elliptical-headed blank arch containing a very tall sash window. The north-east return wall shows evidence of several phases of alteration, including blocked windows at second-floor level. The present openings are an inserted oblong window at ground floor and two tall round-headed windows at first floor—the left one a sash with radiating glazing bars and the other altered and damaged. A chimney is positioned at the rear gable. The south-west wing has an interesting south-west facade suggesting it might have been a rebuild of an original 16th-century gatehouse. At ground floor is a large depressed archway offset slightly left, with a moulded surround. Above this is a similarly-arched window, and at second-floor level is a large carved plaque above a four-light mullioned window. Flanking these openings are one-light windows to the left and two-light windows to the right, all with arched lights and hoodmoulds. The north-west gable is asymmetrical, with eaves lower at the rear than at the front, and a chimney at the apex.

At the rear, the main range has two vertically-aligned round-headed sash windows in the centre with radiating glazing bars, flanked by twelve-pane sashes on the two main floors and six-pane sashes on the second floor. A slightly smaller window on each floor sits close to the south-west wing. At the north-east end, this rear wall blocks most of a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway into the north-east wing.

Attached to the rear gable of the north-east wing is a low two-storeyed former service wing, recently renovated and converted as a separate dwelling. It is of painted rubble with a blue slate roof and a single red brick ridge chimney. A continuous slated pentice protects the ground floor openings, all of which are segmental-headed: a small two-light window at the left end with arched lights and hollow spandrels; two doorways to the right of this (the left one converted as a window); a similar doorway at the right-hand end; and a modern three-light casement to the left of that. At first floor, the left half has a single three-light casement and the other half has a four-light casement. The rear has modern square-headed doors and windows.

The main range contains an early 19th-century open-well staircase with open string, stick balusters and ramped handrail, but otherwise no original features of note. The room at first floor of the north-east wing retains some remains of early 19th-century decoration. The floors of the south-west wing, which appeared to date from the 19th century, collapsed during the long period of dereliction.