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Secrets of Penrhos

The whole of Penrhos has grown over 700 years. Buildings have been added when necessary and when money and energy were available. So that over the ages Penrhos has evolved into a square of old farm buildings that surround a court yard with a puddle-duck pond in the middle.   Or so it seems.  The further back in time you go the less accurate you can be about the whens and whys and how it came to be like it is now and so the less certain about anything of this nature.   There are sources of evidence to date the buildings but even then different methods come up with different dates.  From 1972 onwards I have been here and I'll swear all those dates from then on are right but for the earlier things that happened, well who knows? 

The first account here is a fairly conventional interpretation of what exists now, something to hang your hat on or nail your colours to, something to tell to people who like clear, easy-to-grasp answers. 

Cruck Hall

The first building is the Cruck hall, it's about 700 years old, probably erected about 1280, when Edward the first came down the road and took Kington away from the Welsh. The Cruck frames are made from bent oak trees sawn in half from top to bottom then opened and made into an A frame. Several in line are joined by perlins and then the rafters laid on top and then the roofing material of stone tiles. There was no chimney just a fire pan on the floor and hole in the roof to let the smoke out. During the winter they would have brought their farm animals in with them for the night.  

C15th Cross wing

This section is about 1400. The ceiling is made from 4 to 6 inch thick beams laid side by side. No other ceiling like this has been found in the UK and this unusual style of construction may have a French influence. It is a rare and mysterious building because the Black Death annihilated everyone in Lyonshall leaving plenty of empty houses so there was not much reason to build any more just at the time that this section was built.  

Inglenook

Just by looking at the chimney the obvious conclusion is that about two hundred years after the Cruck was built someone built the great chimney stack with its inglenook fireplace right in the middle of the hall. The idea makes sense, you put up with a bonfire in the middle of your house filling the room with smoke for two hundred years, six maybe eight generations later there is this wonderful invention called a chimney, every proud housewife would want one.

Elizabethan Room

This is the youngest part of the manor house, dating from about 1590, the time of Shakespeare. The first floor is constructed into squares of about six feet with the joists and then the floor boards in each square at 90 degrees to the adjacent square, giving a chequer board pattern. The circle or Celtic cross design of the timber construction in the front gable end, seen from the outside, is called cusping and is just for decoration.

Big Barn

The big barn is Elizabethan but there are several sections of different construction. The walls were originally all timber-frame but were changed to the stone walls about 1780 ~ 1800.

Byres

Hotel & Restaurant

We bought Penrhos in 1972 for five thousand pounds. We converted the Byre into a restaurant in 1974 then built the Hotel in 1991, that is the building at the southern end of the big barn that has a higher roof. The northern end of the big barn is original and has been turned into two self-contained holiday lets.

School of Food and Health

The latest and the most important venture in the history of Penrhos.

Martin

4th March 2007. Speculations to follow soon

· Penrhos Court - Kington - Herefordshire - HR5 3LH - UK ·

Telephone: 01544 230720 • Facsimile: 01544 230754 • Email: info@penrhos.com