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Agincourt mock Medieval home. Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmoveBy Ashley Cowie

Grab Your Very Own ‘Medieval’ Home for £210K

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A Welsh house has been transformed into Medieval-style home equipped with a drawbridge over a mini moat.

The detached property in the county town Ruthin in Denbighshire, north Wales, which has become a Middle Ages-style castle named Agincourt after the famous 1415 battle between Henry V and France, is defended by a 4ft deep moat surrounding the back garden and a drawbridge to walk over it.

An article in the Mirror calls the renovation “a bit of a mash-up” with Tudor themes blending with the Middle-Ages. A WalesOnline report says it's likely that the upper sections of the facade on the original house probably already had the vertical mock Tudor beams, and that these might have inspired the owners to run with “a mash-up” theme and dive into a design world of medieval-meets-Tudor.

Boozing in Graceland

The hallway is stylized like a medieval castle, just like what one would normally expect to see in a BBC historical drama, and its mock ceiling beams spread to form distinctive wall beam diamond shapes. The plaster has been finished with a rough stone effect like ancient castle walls and the front door also has a mottled effect with huge “old world” metal hinges and bars over the stained-glass windows.

The arch shaped door is authentically medieval in design and reflects the home owners' attention to detail, which is further expressed in the dark tartan wallpaper in the dining room and in the rich and warm colors throughout, which were applied in medieval times to warm the feel of damp stone castles. Every medieval castle had a Great Hall and, in this case, the sitting room features a fireplace with candle sconces at one end and a large bar called ‘Graceland’ at the other.

The medieval style sitting room. Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmove

The medieval style sitting room. Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmove

Modern Medieval Living

The home’s master bedroom is a sight to behold with its classic four poster bed standing out against bright red walls, wooden wall panels, wood panel flooring, ceiling beams and textured rough plasterwork, with a shield on the wall to further accentuate the medieval theme.

If you are reading this article thinking, “oh, I’d love to live there” then you are in luck because the house is up for sale, and it might tease developers to know that while the building currently holds three spacious bedrooms and two bathrooms, there is potential to redesign the space to create a fourth bedroom.

Now, if you were such a big fan of the medieval period and wanted the ‘real deal’ then hold on to your cash and keep looking, for England and Wales still hold some real medieval masterpieces for those restorers “not” scared by lists of constriction issues. In a recent Ancient Origins news piece I featured a magnificent, authentic 15th century “flatpack” home that was for sale for £100,000, and what’s more, a Real Homes article describes a six-bedroom, detached Herefordshire farm cottage, barn and outbuildings in the Brecon Beacons which also dates back to the 15th century.

Owner Henry John, an artist, says his father bought the cottage for “£1,000 back in 1967” and five years later, having worked “12-hour days”, sleeping in the old larder surrounded by rubble, he said the restoration was “exhausting, dusty and relentless”. Maybe the most important thing the brave builder told Real Homes was that a “great deal of money” went into hidden but essential tasks.

One of the medieval style rooms at ‘Agincourt’ Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmove

One of the medieval style rooms at ‘Agincourt’ Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmove

One of the bedrooms inside ‘Agincourt’. Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmove

One of the bedrooms inside ‘Agincourt’. Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmove

The Medieval ‘Masterpiece’

Medieval design and building relied on trees in the same way that modern builders depend on steel beams and perhaps the most iconic feature of all mediaeval home restorations are the roof beams which extend through properties. Perhaps the crown of all examples of “original” medieval beam construction was featured one year ago this week in a BBC News article announcing the completion of the £3.2m restoration of Llanthony Secunda Priory after it received Heritage Lottery funding.

Founded in 1136 AD by Miles de Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, as a haven for monks from Llanthony Priory in Wales, this magnificent priory features a medieval wooden-framed building and a 16th Century brick one. The web-like wooden ceilings in this building are a living example of almost every medieval architectural technique imaginable, and as such, it is what “all” modern restoration aspire to look like.

Top image: Agincourt mock Medieval home. Credit: Cavendish Residential Ruthin / rightmove

By Ashley Cowie

 

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"The hallway is stylized like a medieval castle, just like what one would normally expect to see in a BBC historical drama,"

'Just like that which one would normally expect to see' is English.

I didn't post twice

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Ashley

Ashley is a Scottish historian, author, and documentary filmmaker presenting original perspectives on historical problems in accessible and exciting ways.

He was raised in Wick, a small fishing village in the county of Caithness on the north east coast of... Read More

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