The Park - A Rare Gem at Merrion - Part 4

A Rare Survival of a Seventeenth Century Cottage in St. Twynnells, Pembrokeshire

A Closer Look at the Exterior of the House and its Setting

See also:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
  

The first photograph below is a view from the north-east of the cottage that shows the conical. semi-circular oven projection to good effect. Originally this would have been covered in random slates, but these have fallen off and lie around the base of the oven. The owner has protected the interior of the oven by capping it with a cement mix - a good short term measure to keep the rain from seeping through the porous limestone and damaging the fire bricks within, but reinstatement of the slates with a lime based mortar, allowing the stonework to breathe, would be a better longer term solution. The slate covering of the lower part of the chimney stack gives protection to what was probably an earlier oven off to the side of the main stack. This will become clearer when we look inside the house. After each group of "real" photograph is a view from a similar vantage point that shows an approximate 3D model of The Park showing what it could look like or what it might have looked like.

The next two photograph, taken from the north-west shows how an elder(?) tree has taken hold in the stonework. Killing this off chemically and allowing the root structure to die before attempting to remove it will stop the roots of the plant doing more damage to the old structure by prizing the stones apart.

The fourth  and fifth photographs are taken from the south-west.

The step in the roof line marks the end of the thatched roof and the start of a (probably) early to mid-nineteenth century rebuilding of the lower end of the house. The roof over this part is of uniform sized slates, with a small coal fireplace and its flue (with stack) built into the southern gable of the house.

The chimney stack atop the southern gable seems to be built of limestone. The ground level on the western side of the house is much higher than that on the east, and large stones in the hedgerow and underfoot may indicate that there may be the footings of a "lost" wing of the house beneath the turf and debris build up. Only careful excavation can demonstrate whether that is true or not, but there are clues that this might be a possibility on the inside of the cottage.

The photograph to the left, above, shows a closer view of the southern gable of The Park. There is a crack that runs up the wall on the outside, along the line of the flue, and some stones appear to have been dislodged. There are seemingly still remnants of the original lime "render". The photograph on the right above shows the more modern slate roofing of the southern part of the house. There is also an indication of the higher ground to the west, behind a partly revetted wall.

In the shot immediately above, the various lime wash coatings can be seen, with a light ochre colour seeming to predominate. Beyond this, the lateral chimney stack is smothered in ivy and a sycamore tree has taken root at its base. The upper parts of this stack are brick built and the red brick is visible through the growth. This stack must have been heightened, or more likely repaired, after the mid-nineteenth century.

Next time we will begin to look at the interior of the house.