Penhow Castle

Penhow Castle

This castle, constructed of local sandstone rubble with stone tiled roofs, occupies a moated site enclosed by a curtain wall. The approach from the south presents the gabled gatehouse on the left, featuring an offset four-centred doorway and an 18th-century oval window in the gable. To the right stands the storied hall block, distinguished by a lateral chimney and a projecting stair-tower at its far end. The windows throughout display Tudor hoodmoulds, including a cusped 3-light window on the first floor of the hall. Set back further to the right is the Moat Room, featuring a 2-light quatrefoil traceried window reused from Aberpergwm House, Neath. Rising above the gatehouse are the crenellations of the buttressed 3-storey Keep Tower, the earliest surviving part of the castle. The remains of the curtain wall extend to the east.

The courtyard is entered across a modern drawbridge, passing the 4-centred entrance to the hall with diagonal stops. Beyond lies the pointed arch keep doorway (said to have been inserted), which has rounded jambs. The north or courtyard side of the hall displays windows of 14th and 15th-century date; the ground floor window matches the 3-light hall window on the front. The L-shaped domestic ranges to the north, substantially remodelled in the 17th century, contain some cross-frame windows, originally fitted with stone mullion and transom windows. A symmetrical 3-storey, 3-window north front was introduced in the late 18th century with 16-pane sash windows. Original bracket eaves remain, along with a panelled door featuring a bolection architrave and a fine scalloped hood on foliated brackets. Beyond lies a terrace with broad views to the north, and a terraced garden enclosed by revetment walls.

The outer gateway to the drive, beside the churchyard, displays a pair of 18th-century ashlar gatepiers with broad cornices capped by unusually massive ball finials, with iron gates. The gate-piers were relocated from Spring Court, Gloucestershire, and form one of two pairs.

Interior

The Lower Hall was created during the 15th-century work. Prior to that, this space may have been a store with the hall above at a lower level than the present Great Hall, as evidenced by a former doorway visible in the screens passage. Access to the Great Hall is via a spiral staircase with broach stops at the doorway foot. The roof trusses and screen have been renewed, though original beams have been reused in the passage, formerly bearing bosses. A large 15th-century chimneypiece is present. The Great Hall connects to the first floor room of the Keep, which became the private dining room but originally functioned more defensively as the Keep Room or Garrison Room. Narrow stairs ascend from here to the Seymour Chamber, reconstructed as a medieval bedchamber. To the east of the Hall lies the Moat Room, featuring a dressed stone chimneypiece, a 16th-century ceiling inserted from a house in Devon, and the quatrefoil traceried window from Aberpergwm House noted above.

The especially fine interiors of the later 17th century to the north (comparable with Tredegar House) are entered via the Old Parlour, which displays marbled decoration, bolection-moulded panelling, pedimented doorcases, and a deeply lugged chimneypiece beneath a pilastered overmantel. A deep cornice and circular-pattern ribbed ceiling complete the room. The connecting Dining-Room is similarly panelled but features a burr walnut painted finish, broken-pedimented doorcases, panelled double doors, a pilastered overmantel, and a decorative plaster border to the ceiling. Both the Parlour and Dining-Room have black and white marble floors. This range also contains a good full-height open-well staircase with barley-twist balusters, bolection string, and square newels with pendants but no finials. Upstairs, various items have been introduced including panelling and a chimneypiece, with a partly reused 6-bay roof. A brick vaulted cellar lies beneath the Dining-Room.