Chapel House, Monmouth

Chapel House, Hereford Road,

History

The house, originally called The Chantry, then St Brides, is substantially of the early eighteenth century. It has been credited as replacing another building on the same site, although no evidence of this has been found. It was built or improved by the ironmaster William Rea, a former Mayor of Monmouth, around 1720. The windows were replaced and a new entrance doorway was added around 1800, probably by ironmaster David Tanner. Chapel House was restored in 1910 by Humphrey Farran Hall who repaired the panelling. When it was reroofed in the later twentieth century, the large chimney stacks were removed.^[2] The name changed from St Brides in the late 1970s when Chapel House, a boarding house of Monmouth School for Boys, relocated from St James's Street.^[2]

Description

The building is of "seven bays under a hipped roof."^[1] It gives the appearance of being two buildings back to back, like several other houses in Monmouth. Curiously, the garden range is larger than the street range.^[2] The red-brick walls to the side, which give access to a service court, and the garden stretching down to the River Monnow are "contemporary",^[1] the garden representing a "rare substantial townhouse garden from the early 18th century".^[3] It is registered at Grade II on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.^[4] The interior contains plasterwork and a staircase which "echo Troy House and Great Castle House",^[1] although John Newman considers that the quality of the interior fittings surpasses those of either.^[5]

References