CRINDAU Source: "Notes on the Ancient Domestic residences of Pentre-Bach, Crick, Ty-Mawr, The Garn, Crindau and St. Julian's" by Octavius Morgan and Thomas Wakeman Printed for the Monmouthshire and Caerleon Antiquarian Association, by Henry Mullock, Newport, 1860 Illustration by John Lee, secretary of the association. Text: The old house at Crindau, of which a South view is given in Plate VIII, is another very good example of the mansions of the Elizabethan period, and exhibits a great similarity of arrangement, to those already mentioned. It is a single house, and consists of a long straight building, entered in the centre by the porch of two stories, in the upper part of which is a small chamber: on either side of the porch are two large windows, each of four square-headed lights, indicative of the period when it was erected. The doorway of the porch is a four-centred, or Tudor arch of stone, over which is the inscription in black-letter, "Anno Domini, 1580," and the letter "M" on a shield in the spandrils of the arch; from which we may fairly infer, that the present mansion was built by Humphry Morgan, the son of Edward Morgan of Llantarnam, who, as we have seen, married Catherine Herbert, heiress of the estate. The internal doorway is of wood, and there is the usual passage leading through the house. The apartment on the left-hand appears to have been the hall, the fire-place being partly filled up - from this, a door leads to the cellar, and a small staircase communicates with the upper chambers. In one of these, there is a portion of a. moulded frieze or cornice, and also of a ceiling ornamented with fleur-de-lis and other enrichments of the period. Among them is a goat's head enclosed within a circle; this most probably had reference to some of the armorial bearings of the family. Beyond the hall is another apartment which may have been the parlour; it is lighted by a transomed two-light window at the West end of the house, and a window with four lights on the South. On the right of the entrance passage, were the kitchen and other offices, together with a staircase leading to the rooms above, in one of which is an ornamented fire-place; circumstances however, prevented a very accurate examination of this ancient and venerable mansion. On the North side of St. Woollos church is a small chapel, thrown out from the North aisle: this formerly went by the name of the Crindau Chapel - it is apparently earlier than the present Crindau mansion, and may have been built by one of the earlier proprietors, and has still retained the name. Octavius Morgan, 1860 Back