Swiss Cottage, Rockfield

The Hendre was the country home of the Rolls family since the 18th century^[1] and, as the fortunes of the family rose, was subject to three major expansions in the 19th and 20th centuries, to the designs of George Vaughan Maddox,^[2] then Thomas Henry Wyatt,^[2] and finally Aston Webb.^[2] Webb constructed the Cedar Library at the main mansion in the very late 19th century^[2] and in 1905 designed the Swiss Cottage.^[3] It formed a terminal point on the “3-mile Drive” constructed by Lord Llangattock, and designed by Henry Ernest Milner.^[4]

The cottage is single-storeyed, with a dormer above, and is constructed of old red sandstone.^[3] The roof is hipped and pierced at either end with large chimneystacks. The interior contains an inglenook fireplace. Cadw notes influences from Lutyens and Voysey,^[3] while the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales considers it "an inspired and unusually distinctive symmetrical Arts-and-Crafts design".^[5] The architectural historian John Newman described Swiss Cottage as "a sweet little thing but not particularly Swiss".^[6]

• Newman, John (2000). Gwent/Monmouthshire. The Buildings of Wales. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-071053-1.
• Whittle, Elisabeth (1990). The Hendre (PDF). Cardiff: Cadw.