| Notes |
- Richard was the builder of Beaupre Porch.
Beaupre Castle: Excerpts from www.castlewales.com/beaupre.html
The visitor's approach to Old Beaupre, down the gentle valley of the river Thaw, gives just the right impression of the rustic idyll, the beautiful retreat, that its Anglo-Norman name suggests. Old Beaupre was a medieval and then Tudor manor house, built around two courtyards. The medieval part, dating from about 1300, consisted of a group of buildings loosely arranged around the southernmost, or inner court. In the 16th century an extensive program of rebuilding was undertaken, started by Sir Rice Mansel, continued by William Bassett and finished by his son Richard. This phase added the northernmost buildings around the middle court, and included the building of Old Beaupre's most important feature, the outer gatehouse and the storeyed porch. These are remarkably well preserved, despite the ruinous state of most of the buildings around them. They demonstrate the Bassetts' wealth and pretensions to grandeur, as was doubtless their intention at the time. The heraldic panels and inscriptions on each leave no doubt as to who built them. ...
The last and architecturally most important feature at Old Beaupre is the great storeyed porch. The contrast between the porch's smooth yellow ashlar stonework and the surrounding rough local stone is stark but misleading. Originally, all the walls were rendered with the same fake ashlar. The porch is built to a very high standard, and its details, except for the lozenges at the base, are very well preserved. In typical Tudor fashion it combines a number of styles, with its Tudor archway, classical columns and strapwork decoration. The north face is divided into three stages, with pairs of columns, in the classically correct ascending order of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, flanking the entrance. Above them are heraldic panels and a blocked window. The panel is another celebration of the Bassett family, and below is an inscription in three small panels which states that Richard Bassett built this porch in 1600 at an age of 65. The earliest known use of brick in Glamorgan is in the inner facing of the porch, the surface of which is grooved to simulate rustication. The chimney to the right of the porch, now lacking its top half, was probably built at the same time. Thereafter Old Beaupre was little altered. After the Civil War the family's fortunes declined, and by the time it was sold at the beginning of the 18th century only part was still habitable.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1535 - Deceased