Cofnod Safle

Clay walls, rendered. Heavy thatch now covered with corrugated iron, probably originally crogloft. Collapsed area of clay suggests lean-to. Windows and doors C19th.

[Additional:] Little Porton is a cottage-farmhouse of C18th type with a central entrance and end chimney. The walls are of mixed stone and clay construction with brick patching and a substantial area of collapsed clay walling at the rear. Little Porton is the last surviving example of a vernacular clay and thatch building tradition in the |Monmouthshire levels that was probably once widespread but is now a curiosity. Marine clay is readily available below the soil cover and reed and straw is abundant.

The linear range of farmbuildings at Little Porton illustrates another vernacular building technique. Baulks of timber set vertically have been linked together in palisade fashion to form the exterior walls of the range. The building is relatively late (mid-C19th in date) but probably illustrates an ad hoc building technique using salvage timber available as drift wood or from wrecked and broken ships.

RCAHMW survey . Photographic survey 2011. Little Porton was featured in an episode of Hidden Histories that discussed the 16[] storm surge in the Monmouthshire levels which destroyed many (clay) houses but left other buildings (stone-built churches) flooded but undamaged. R. F. SDuggett/RCAHMW/July 2011.