Blackbrook House

A late-Georgian country house of modest scale, on the site of a small medieval manor of the castle of Skenfrith. Built of stuccoed rubble, with a shallow hipped slate roof; apparently altered, and recently renovated. It has a compact double-pile rectangular plan, the main axis being N-S, and is 3-storeyed, with the principal façade to the E. This is a strictly symmetrical composition, 1:3:1 windows, the outer bays projected and the recessed centre spanned at ground floor by a light Tuscan colonnade with a dentilled cornice. Behind this 2 large rectangular 4-light windows with slender horizontal glazing bars flank a narrow window with glazing bars (perhaps formerly a doorway). The projected outer bays each have a narrow French window at ground floor, with horizontal glazing bars. The 1st floor has tall 12-pane sash windows and the 2nd floor has square 6-pane sashes. There is a dentilled and moulded eaves cornice which carries round the whole building, and a pair of lateral chimney stacks on the roof ridge of this side (flanking the centre). The 3-window S front, which is flush and has a hipped roof, is likewise symmetrical but with much larger windows: large segmental-headed tripartite sashes flank a round-headed niche at ground floor and a narrow segmental-headed 12-pane sash at 1st floor, and the 2nd floor has 3 wide tripartite lunettes, all these windows having slender glazing bars. The N side, which overlooks the service courtyard, has the same sort of windows but in the outer bays only, the only other openings being a pair of small 12-pane sashes flanking the centre line at 1st floor, and a simple doorway at ground floor which appears to be an insertion; and the hipped roof has M-profile. In the W side, originally the rear but now the main entrance front, the only feature of note is a broad centre bay breaking forward slightly and containing a large Venetian stairwindow; beneath which is now a large modern glazed porch, and above it a shallow segmental-headed tripartite window. Attached to the NW corner is a long rubble-built single-storey service wing, which forms the W side of a service courtyard enclosed by brick walls on the other 2 sides.

Not accessible during this survey, but when first listed it was said to include "a noteworthy full height stair round spacious well and with variously-shaped landings". Pevsner and Newman (2000) record a bowed gallery at 2nd-floor level (see references below).