Hygga House Dovecote, Trellech

Hygga House Dovecote
"a particularly fine and complete example"
Type	Dovecote
Location	Hygga, Trellech, Monmouthshire, Wales
Coordinates	51°43′45″N2°44′46″W / 51.7292°N 2.7462°W / 51.7292; -2.7462
Built	late 16th century
Architectural style(s)	Vernacular
Governing body	Privately owned
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name	Dovecote at Hygga House
Designated	1 May 1952
Reference no.	2071
Scheduled monument
Official name	Dovecote at Hygga Farm
Reference no.	MM150
Location of Hygga House Dovecote in Monmouthshire

The Dovecote, Hygga, Trellech, Monmouthshire is a late 16th-century dovecote, in an unusually complete state of preservation. Part of the service buildings for the, now demolished, Hygga House, the dovecote is a Grade II* listed building and a scheduled monument.

History and description

The origin of the name Hygga is Old Norse, meaning "to comfort". ^[1] In the 16th century, a substantial mansion, Hygga House, ^[2] stood on the site but it has since been demolished. ^{[2] [a]} The dovecote, along with a large barn ^[4] and a shippon and stables, ^[5] comprised a range of service buildings for the house. ^[2] In a poor state of repair for over two centuries, the dovecote was fully restored in the 1980s and now forms a rare example of a complete 16th-century dovecote. ^{[6] [b]} Sir Cyril Fox and Lord Raglan, in their three-volume guide Monmouthshire Houses , note the rarity of such dovecotes within the county, citing one at Llantellen, Skenfrith as the only other known example. ^[8] In his study, A Book of Dovecotes published in 1920, Arthur Owens Cooke in fact noted three; at Court Farm, Llanvair Discoed; at St Pierre; and at Llanthony Priory; but does not record Hygga. ^{[c] [10]} The architectural historian John Newman gives a dating for the dovecote, and the associated barns, of c.1600. ^[11]

The dovecote is constructed of lime-washed stone rubble, with a "stone-slated conical roof". ^[2] Unusually for a dovecote, it has windows with ovolo mullions. ^[6] Above the windows are six tiers of nesting boxes, set into the wall. ^[6] The dovecote is a Scheduled monument, ^{[12] [13]} and a Grade II* listed building, its listing recording the dovecote as a "particularly fine and complete example". ^[6]

Footnotes

1. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales suggests that the house may have had monastic origins. ^[3]
2. Although Cadw clearly records the restoration as taking place "in the 1980s", Elisabeth Whittle, in her study, A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales: Glamorgan and Gwent, published in 1992, described it as "a circular stone dovecote, whose tiled roof has fallen in". ^[7]
3. Cooke, in the Herefordshire chapter of his book, lamented the destruction of so many dovecotes in the early 20th century and implored owners not to permit the growth of ivy on those that remained; "above all set [your] faces against ivy, that most dangerous foe of masonry. To turn the dovecote into a green bower may be picturesque, but means disaster in the end". ^[9]

References

1. Parkinson, Justin (2 October 2015). "Hygge: A heart-warming lesson from Denmark". BBC News.
2. Newman 2000, p. 578.
3. "Garden at Hygga (265961)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 24 August 2022.
4. "Barn at Hygga (306486)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 24 August 2022.
5. "Shippon and stable at Hygga (37102)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 24 August 2022.
6. Cadw. "Dovecote at Hygga House (Grade II*) (2071)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
7. Whittle 1992, p. 194.
8. Fox & Raglan 1994, p. 124.
9. Cooke 1920, p. 48.
10. Cooke 1920, pp. 195–9.
11. Newman 2009, p. 339.
12. "Hygga Dovecote (43258)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 4 December 2021.
13. Cadw. "Dovecot at Hygga Farm (MM150)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 10 January 2023.

Sources

• Cooke, Arthur Owens (1920). A Book of Dovecotes. London: T. N. Foulis. OCLC   1965568.
• Fox, Cyril; Raglan, Lord (1994) [1954]. Renaissance Houses. Monmouthshire Houses. Vol. 3. Cardiff: Merton Priory Press Ltd & The National Museum of Wales. ISBN   1-898937-00-1. OCLC   776066469.
• Newman, John (2000). Gwent/Monmouthshire. The Buildings of Wales. London: Penguin. ISBN   0-14-071053-1.
• — (2009). Griffiths, Ralph A.; Madeline, Gray; Prys, Morgan (eds.). The Making of Monmouthshire, 1536-1780. The Gwent County History. Vol. 3. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN   978-0-7083-2198-0. OCLC   895978900.
• Whittle, Elisabeth (1992). A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales: Glamorgan and Gwent. London: HMSO. ISBN   9780117012219. OCLC   30739843.