Pentre House

Pentre House

This house is built of local random sandstone rubble, partly rendered and mostly painted, with Welsh slate roofs. It comprises two storeys throughout but with three different rooflines, the oldest section being the highest.

The main entrance front displays three distinct building phases. The oldest block occupies the centre, a probably 18th-century block stands to the left, and a late 20th-century wing projects to the right. The original block rises two full storeys and features a central gabled porch (modern) flanked by two 2-light casements with elliptical heads. To the left is a small casement resembling a 17th-century firewindow, though it actually opens later to light the corridor between the blocks. The upper floor has two further 2-light casements under the eaves. Gable end stone stacks with weathering survive, the left stack dating to the 17th century. To the right stands a two-storey, single-window extension rendered neither rendered nor painted. To the left, a lower added wing contains, from left to right, a small casement, a 3 + 3 pane French casement, a 2-light casement with elliptical head, and a plain boarded door with elliptical head. Three 2-light casements light the floor above. The gable end is slate hung above a modern 3-light window.

The rear elevation of the main block clearly shows how the roof has been raised. The ground floor has one small window to the left and a large 2-light casement with elliptical head to the right. The upper floor contains three windows rising from the original walling into the heightening: a 2-light casement, a 2 × 2 pane casement, and a 2-light casement, all under the eaves. The later right wing has a two-storey gabled projection with windows on each floor of the return. The main part is revealed as the former granary, with stone steps rising to a French casement, a door below, and plain 2-light casements on each floor.

Interior

The main entrance enters the kitchen in the possibly 18th-century wing. The kitchen contains a double hearth added to the rear of the original stack: one arched in neatly cut stones and probably 19th-century, and the other with a monolith lintel, probably 18th-century; an oven with iron door also survives. Plain late ceiling beams appear here and in the probable dairy, which was converted to the Dining Room in 1979.

To the right of the entrance lobby is the original gable entry into the circa 1600 house. Its ground floor is divided into two rooms, though not by an original post-and-panel partition. The outer room has chamfered ceiling beams and joists with ogee stops. The fireplace wall carries apparently early 18th-century panelling with a cyma recta shelf and an iron fireback dated 1677, though some panelling represents 20th-century repairs and replacements. To the right of the fireplace stands a reconstructed semi-spiral firestair, possibly not present when last revised in 1980. The inner room also has chamfered beams and joists with ogee stops, but the rear section of the roof is undecorated, suggesting this comprised two separate rooms—possibly a private room and a pantry—originally entered through separate doors in an oak partition, as still survives at the nearby Persondy. A modern door from the inner room leads to the 1990s extension.

The principal upstairs feature is the large cruck truss demonstrating the roof raising. The blades are trenched for extremely large purlins. The apex of the truss is visible in the roof space where it joins well below the present ridge line.