Wiston Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

Wiston Manor

In the community of Wiston.
In the historic county of Pembrokeshire.
Modern authority of Pembrokeshire.
Preserved county of Dyfed.

OS Map Grid Reference: SN02341812
Latitude 51.82669° Longitude -4.86972°

Wiston Manor has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry footings remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

The Manor House is sited immediately East of Wiston Castle. A view by the Buck brothers c. 1740 (reproduced in Cadw's guide to Wiston Castle) shows the predecessor of the Manor House approached by a gatehouse. The gatehouse and three-storey domestic range beyond it stand more or less on the site of the present Home Farm (NPRN 405268). Beyond (perhaps marked by the smoke from the chimneys hidden by trees) is the present manor house. The old Manor House, the seat of the Wogan family, seems to have been abandoned after acquisition by the Cawdorestate. The shell of the old Manor House seems to have survived until the early C19th but the entry for Wiston in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary (1830s) explains that a farmer lived in part of the house, presumably the present Manor House.
The present Manor House was new-built in the first half of the early eighteenth-century. The house is of central entry type with bays with the stars and services sited in a rear lean-to. Some surviving timber detail is broadly contemporary with the house including a splendid 'buffet' cupboard, doors with fielded panels, and the stair which has an ogee-stopped newel post. The splendid roof, recently revealed, dates the construction of the house to 1732.
The roof is complete and splendid example of vernacular carpentry. The roof-trusses are all of the same type: notch-lapped collar-beam trusses with chamfers. The trusses are boldly numbered I - XII but have not been erected in sequence. One of the trusses over the 'annexe' has the inscription 1732 on the collar which must date the house. The house was therefore newly-built at the time of Buck brothers sketch. R.F. Suggett/RCAHMW/Nov. 2006 (Coflein)

Comments

The late medieval manor house might have been the castle gatehouse 'turned around' and, therefore, might be considered as a separate site from the castle. Equally might just better be considered as part of, the quite usual, ongoing modification of Wiston Castle to suit changing requirements. As a separate building, even though still using part of the castle, it can hardly be considered as fortified although the reuse of a castle building and the close proximity to the shell keep of the castle would have given the Wogans the same sort of kudos as a moated manor house.

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW listed database record number is/are 8285282853.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 405267.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 3542.

Books
- See Wiston Castle bibliography

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown.
Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of the described site.

This record last updated 10/07/2016 04:43:38

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