Ton Farmhouse | |
---|---|
Type | Farmhouse |
Location | Llangybi, Monmouthshire |
Coordinates | 51°39′28″N 2°55′10″W / 51.6577°N 2.9194°W |
Built | early 17th century |
Architectural style(s) | Vernacular |
Governing body | Privately owned |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Ton Farmhouse |
Designated | 4 March 1952 |
Reference no. | 2686 |
Ton Farmhouse, Llangybi, Monmouthshire is a farmhouse dating from the early 17th century. John Newman, in his Monmouthshire Pevsner, describes it as a "perfect Monmouthshire farmhouse". Ton is a Grade II* listed building, its listing noting that it is a "remarkably good survival" of a prosperous 17th century Welsh farmhouse.
Sir Joseph Bradney records the site of the farmhouse as Ton-y-beddau, which he translates as "the glade of the graves" and refers to a "vague tradition of a battle and the burying of corpses".[1] His multi-volume study, A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present Time, also provides a lengthy pedigree of the owners of the surrounding lands.[2] Cadw dates the construction of Ton Farm to the early 17th century.[3] The farmhouse was "greatly enlarged" in 1663,[3] with an inscribed datestone recording the date.[4] In the 1895 Monmouthshire edition of Kelly's Directory, the farm is noted as being under the management of John Griffiths, farmer.[5] Ton remains a privately owned house and is a Grade II* listed building.[3] The architectural historian John Newman describes it as a "perfect Monmouthshire farmhouse".[4]
The farm is of two-storeys, built in whitewashed old red sandstone rubble. The roofs are of Welsh slate.[3] Most of the windows were replaced in the 19th century but the house has been "little altered" since this date.[3] Sir Cyril Fox and Lord Raglan include a plan of Ton in the third volume, Renaissance Houses, c. 1590–1714, of their three-volume study of the vernacular architecture of the county, Monmouthshire Houses. Their plan shows the three-room ground-floor layout of the house after the 1663 alterations, with the hall and parlour divided by a cross-passage, and a pantry to the rear of the hall.[6] The plan includes illustrations of the elaborate joinery in the parlour,[6] a feature also noted by Cadw.[3] A line drawing of a section of moulding from the house is given in Peter Smith's Houses of the Welsh Countryside.[7]