Details
OSWESTRY RURAL
1602/4/201 PENTRE-ISAF
15-MAY-86 BARN, COWHOUSE AND PIGSTY RANGE APPROX
IMATELY 20 METRES NORTH EAST OF PENTRE
-ISAF
(Formerly listed as:
PENTRE-ISAF
BARN AND COWHOUSE APPROX. 20M NORTH-EA
ST OF PENTRE-ISAF)
GV II
L-plan barn, cowhouse, and granary range, probably mid C18 to mid C19; detached pigsty range to S.
EXTERIOR: The L-plan range forms the N and part of the E side of Pentre Isaf's farmyard. The building, mainly of uncoursed limestone rubble and with slate roofs, is of several phases. The earliest is a short N-S stone building, latterly a cow house, at the angle of the two ranges. This has wooden C19 cowstalls. THE NORTH RANGE was added to this, and originally its principal function was a barn as shown by a tall double door in its N side and ventilation slits E of this. First floor loading hatches on the S side appear original, whereas larger, irregular hatches on the N side probably date from the building's C19 adaptation to a cowhouse, as do three doors on the S side, that to the centre raised well above the modern yard level. The E wall of the barn is timber-framed and weatherboarded. Roof with raking struts from tie beam, and twin purlins. Internally there are cowstalls and a C20 inserted loft floor. Attached to W end of barn, butted to it and thus slightly later, is a granary approached by external stairs with stable below. The upper part of its S wall, probably originally timber-framed, was bricked up in the C19. It retains its plastered first-floor grain storage space, but no evidence of storage bins. To the E of the barn, in line, is a lower stone and timber-framed range, and another which is lower still and clad in corrugated tin. These are later than the barn; in the mid C20 the former housed an engine (missing) for barn machinery. These structures are of lesser interest. A mid C20 brick outbuilding abutting the S side of the barn is of no interest. The EAST RANGE was a southward extension probably in the early to mid C19. Slightly lower than the building it adjoins, it is again of limestone rubble with a slate roof, with five doors opening into the yard and with ventilation slits to the first floor. It has a king post roof, and its interior is now entirely open and fitted out as a C20 milking parlour. Stone outshuts to E. Both ranges have brick-detailed pigeon nesting holes on the yard side.
The three (once four) PIGSTIES form a single two-storey, stone, slate-roofed, range (long hen house over ground-floor pigsties), with stone yards to the front entered through gates with sturdy quarried stone gateposts. The yards have been covered with an asbestos covered roof which is not of interest. Attached to the W is a stone cartshed.
HISTORY: None known, although the a farmhouse (separately listed) is a substantial medieval hall house. Typically farm buildings were built by the owner-occupier or tenant, if by the latter with the acquiescence of the landlord. The name translates as 'Lower Homestead', in contradistinction to the nearby Pentre Uchaf ('Upper Homestead'). A datestone in the west gable end of the barn was previously read as 1867; it is unclear what work this date refers to.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: The L-plan barn and cowhouse range, and the detached pigsty range at Pentre Isaf are designated for the following principal reasons:
* as good examples of Marcher vernacular farm buildings which are increasingly rare survivals
* because they have group value with Pentre Isaf farmhouse, which is listed at grade II*
* as the Pentre Isaf complex forms an important component of the local agricultural and cultural landscape
