Treowen

---

title: "Treowen" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["grade-i-listed-buildings-in-monmouthshire", "registered-historic-parks-and-gardens-in-monmouthshire", "houses-in-monmouthshire", "country-houses-in-wales"] description: "17th-century house in Wales" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treowen" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 17th-century house in Wales ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox historic site"]

Field	Value
name	Treowen
image	Treowen House - geograph.org.uk - 154801.jpg
caption	"a very magnificent building"
type	House
locmapin	Wales Monmouthshire
map_relief	yes
coordinates
location	Dingestow, Monmouthshire, Wales
built	1615-1627
built_for	William Jones
architecture	Vernacular
governing_body	Privately owned
designation1	Grade I listed building
designation1_offname	Tre-Owen
designation1_date	1 May 1952
designation1_number	2065
designation2	Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales
designation2_free1name	Listing
designation2_free1value	Grade II
designation2_offname	Treowen
designation2_date	1 February 2022
designation2_number	PGW(Gt)22(Mon)
::

| name = Treowen | image = Treowen House - geograph.org.uk - 154801.jpg | caption = "a very magnificent building" | type = House | locmapin = Wales Monmouthshire | map_relief = yes | coordinates = | location = Dingestow, Monmouthshire, Wales | area = | built = 1615-1627 | architect = | built_for = William Jones | architecture = Vernacular | governing_body = Privately owned | designation1 = Grade I listed building | designation1_offname = Tre-Owen | designation1_date = 1 May 1952 | designation1_number = 2065 | designation2 = Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales | designation2_free1name = Listing | designation2_free1value = Grade II | designation2_offname = Treowen | designation2_date = 1 February 2022 | designation2_number = PGW(Gt)22(Mon) Treowen (or Tre-owen) is an early 17th-century house in Monmouthshire, Wales, regarded as "the most important gentry house (of its date) in the county". It is located in open countryside within the parish of Wonastow, about ½ mile (1 km) north-east of the village of Dingestow, and 3 mi south-west of Monmouth. After being used as a farmhouse for three centuries, Treowen now operates as a conference and functions venue and holds the annual Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival. It is a Grade I listed building, and its gardens are designated Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

History

::quote

::

The house was built in about 1623–27 for William Jones, on the site of a 15th-century building. Jones was briefly Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire in 1614, and was High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1615. He later inherited a fortune from his uncle, a trader in London.

The Jones family moved out of the house in the 1670s, and let it out as a farmhouse.

The house is now used as a centre for conferences and holidays, and as a venue for weddings and other functions. It has also been used in the filming of TV programmes, including Doctor Who. Treowen is home to the annual Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival, held annually in January and July.

Architecture and description

The architectural historian John Newman considers Treowen the "most important 17th century gentry house" in Monmouthshire. It is constructed to a double-pile plan and built of Old Red Sandstone, with caramel-coloured ashlar blocks and green Bridgend sandstone dressings. The house was very large by local standards of the time, and commanded extensive views. Newman wrote that "as originally built, the height of the house must have been as daunting as the sheer repetitiveness of its design". The originally austere façade was altered early in its history by the addition of a porch, with a "classical frontispiece of distressing crudity", and the Jones shield.

Inside the house, the ground floor rooms rise to a height of 17 ft. There is an oak panelled room with plaster ceiling and Jacobean fireplace, and a great staircase of 72 stairs, the earliest datable open-well staircase in Monmouthshire. This great, or banqueting, hall originally held "a handsomely-carved screen" but the Monmouthshire antiquarian Joseph Bradney, in his multi-volume A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present Time, records that the screen was moved to Llanarth Court, another Herbert property, in 1898. Newman, writing in 2000, stated that the screen "is likely to be returned", a view which echoed that of Fred Hando who, writing 30 years earlier, stated; "the oak screen dated 1627 was transferred from Treowen where, in my opinion, it would be more happily housed".

In his study, Houses of the Welsh Countryside, (published 1975, second edition 1988), Peter Smith concludes Treowen "is indeed a very magnificent building". Tyerman and Warner, in Arthur Mee's multi-volume study The King's England, describe it as "one of the finest houses in all Monmouthshire". Treowen is a Grade I listed building. The gardens, which contain remnants of the original Tudor terracing, are designated Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

References

Sources

• {{Cite book |last=Bradney|first=Joseph |authorlink=Joseph Bradney |title=A History of Monmouthshire: The Hundred of Skenfrith, Volume 1 Part 1 |year=1991 |publisher=Academy Books |isbn=1873361092 |oclc=669714197
• {{cite book |last=Hando |first=Fred |authorlink=Fred Hando |year=1964 |title=Here and There in Monmouthshire |publisher=R.H.Johns Ltd. |location=Newport |oclc=30295639
• {{Cite book |last=Newman|first=John |authorlink = John Newman (architectural historian) |series=The Buildings of Wales |title=Gwent/Monmouthshire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knRf4U60QjcC&dq=The+Buildings+of+Wales:+Gwent/Monmouthshire&pg=PA2 |year=2000 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=0-14-071053-1
• {{Cite book |last=Smith|first=Peter |authorlink = Peter Smith (architectural historian) |title=Houses of the Welsh Countryside |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKs_nYwrOHcC&q=houses+of+the+welsh+countryside|year=1988 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London |isbn=9-78011-300012-8
• {{cite book | last1 = Tyerman | first1 = Hugo | last2 = Warner | first2 = Sydney | editor = Arthur Mee | editor-link = Arthur Mee | year = 1951 | title = Monmouthshire | series=The King's England | location = London | publisher = Hodder and Staughton | oclc = 764861

References

1. [http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/wa-2065-tre-owen-mitchel-troy Tre-Owen at British Listed Buildings]. Accessed 2 February 2012
2. [http://www.treowen.co.uk/about/history-1.htm History, at Treowen website] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-10-21 . Accessed 2 February 2012)
3. The building itself remained largely unchanged except for the removal of the top storey of the front half of the building in the 18th century.{{sfn. Newman. 2000. Country Life]]'' (see quote box). The grounds of the house contain the remains of what is said to be a [[Tudor period. Tudor]] garden, including a rectangular earthwork on the north side of the house, a walkway and ornamental fishponds.{{Coflein
4. [http://www.treowen.co.uk/As-seen-on-TV.htm Treowen website]. Accessed 2 February 2012
5. "Wye Valley Chamber Music". wyevalleyfestival.com.
6. {{National Historic Assets of Wales
7. {{NHAW

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