Barons Court, Cogan Pill

Description

Formerly known as Cogan Pill. Late C15 or early C16 hall house. Mentioned in the will of Matthew Craddock of Swansea in 1531, owner recorded shortly after as Sir George Herbert. His younger son William, who was sherriff in 1552 and 1567 reputedly enlarged the house. It remained in the Herbert family, who also held St Fagans Castle, for some generations, later becoming a farmhouse. Restored and remodelled c 1850 by H S Corbett, relative and agent of the Marquess of Bute, as a house for himself. Herbert Arms above the front porch. Probably mid C16 rear wing. Mid C19 parallel W wing.
Interior
Porch leads to inner pointed-arched chamfered and stopped doorway of former cross passage. To right a remodelled doorway with further arched opening beside leads into the lofty hall which has an arch-braced roof of 6 trusses, the W three of which are reputedly original, with 4 rows of ribbed purlins and C19 crested wallplate. Walls are faced with C19 polychrome brickwork, patterns in header shapes; large painted stone fireplace with chamfered flat arch, stone mantel-shelf and coloured tiles; to E is a large moulded stone arch of 3 orders reputedly made in C19 of medieval stonework from St John's church Cardiff, leading to a window recess; hall windows have wide embrasures. In the former service wing, the rear wall has the remains of a spiral stone staircase and 2 chamfered 4-centred arched doorways. To rear is a C19 cambered-arched fireplace with voussoirs and iron lintel and to side a further chamfered pointed-arched doorway. Now used as a public house and restaurant with some inserted 2-storey partitions; some historicwales.gov.uk Report Page 1/2 historicwales.gov.uk areas of old fabric unrendered.
Exterior
Former Manor House, a late medieval hall house, now a public house. Built mostly of coursed rubble; porch and left frontage are rendered. Welsh slate roofs, narrow stone ridge and end stacks with tall decorative terracotta pots. Windows are mullioned with four-centred lights and square hoodmoulds, many of C19 and painted. 2 storeys. Main range has two-storeyed gabled porch off centre with 2-light first floor window, mid C16 Herbert coat of arms below and 4-centred arched ground floor doorway. Hall to right (E) has a 4-light window and low cambered-arched now unused doorway. E gable end wall has a wide buttress with offset and bands with similar first floor window. To left (W) of porch and with a separate roof from hall is the former service range with two 2-light windows to first floor, also on gable end, and deep ground floor single storey C19 bay with castellated parapet and 4-light window. Main W elevation is the stepped back C19 gabled wing with three 2-light windows to first floor; gabled porch with pointed-arched doorway flanked by segmental-arched multipane windows; small lean-to to right. To rear are the two 2-storeyed gables of the parallel cross wings, the rear service wing and C19 hall wing; attached to left (E) is a large single storey wing with embattled parapet and multiple-light windows including a canted bay, an extension of the early hall, which itself has a projecting shallow gabled wing with stack for the lateral fireplace and an adjacent 4-light window in an embattled rectangular bay. (Listed Building Report)

Cogan Pill, the ancient seat of the Herberts, a branch of the family of that name near Swansea, has been converted into a farmhouse, the grand hall being appropriated as a barn: the Herberts of this county were ancestors of the Earls of Pembroke and of Warwick. (Lewis 1849)

Comments

A fine and rare survival of a late medieval hall house but not fortified. David King records this as a possible castle site. Did he think there was an earlier house here with some defensive elements? The location is much altered by roads and the railway but there is nothing to exclude the possibility of an earlier fortified site here.