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Architecture

updated 19 Nov 06 19.00

The Building

The first impression of Cwrt now is of a large, rambling building of local stone, heavily shrouded in ivy, with many tall chimneys still poking up through the rampant growth. It is clearly ruinous and neglected, as the roofs and internal floors have virtually all collapsed.

But the shell of the building, the walls and chimneys are remarkably intact, as they are of such robust construction. Some of the stone walls are up to four feet in width.

Cwrt Farm is obviously an ancient house, with massive stone walls and a haphazard plan. A clue to its quality is the pair of great, diagonal chimneys on the West side of the house, a Tudor architectural feature of important houses. Every fashionable Elizabethan gentleman's house would sport at least a pair of great chimneys like this - they are an important clue to the architectural quality of Cwrt. They are decorative as well as supremely functional.

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Chimneys poking through the ivy

court farm chimney detail

Side and front elevations

The Barn

The Barn

roof timbers

Remaining roof timbers

Other Tudor details we can spot are the surviving three light mullioned windows, some with hood moulds, so the rain drips safely away; some of them are stone, others of wood. They are so reminiscent of the windows of Oxford colleges, and again, are clues to the quality of this building. The windows at Cwrt are very interesting - there is evidence that at times in the past they have been blocked, possibly to avoid paying the window tax. Some of the larger windows in the hall, the most important room in the house, must have been very fine.

Inside the former hall in the South-East wing, you can see two Sutton stone fireplaces on the wall, one on top of the other. They are elegant, simple, but high quality designs, showing that in the past Cwrt was an important gentry house, with fireplaces brought in from outside. The Sutton stone quarry was near Southerndown, on the Glamorgan coast, and it is quite possible that the fireplaces arrived by sea

In the roof space of the former hall, which later became a barn is a collapsing ornate beam, of great significance. It may date back to the 13th Century. It is one of the few roof timbers to survive still in situ.

The plan of Cwrt is an irregular three sides of a quadrangle; there are many rooms of different shapes and sizes, and little coherent planning, due largely to the various uses that Cwrt has been put to over the centuries. Many clues to its former use and function are no doubt lying in the collapsed rubble of roofs and upper floors.

In front of Cwrt stands the barn, also in decay, with a collapsed roof and ominous cracks on the pine end walls. Just under the parapet, corbelling can be seen, projections of stone jutting out from the wall to support its weight. This local building feature is to be found on some old Carmarthenshire buildings. Corbelling can be found on the South wall of Cwrt - (hidden under the ivy) and on the tower of Pembrey church. Another good feature is the pointed arch of the doorway, suggesting an ancient construction, which along with the castellated parapet, gives it a military air.

Mullion windows

Mullion windows

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Sutton stone fireplace

Floorplan of Cwrt Farm

floorplan2
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