The house was commissioned by John Liscombe, a leather merchant and sadler, who established his business in Llanarth Street.

[3] Until that time the Monmouthshire Assizes were held at the Shire Hall, Monmouth, some 25 miles from Newport via a slow winding road.

[6] As most of the business for the assizes and quarter sessions was provided by the inhabitants of Newport, there were many complaints about the inconvenience to witnesses and to the legal profession of the courts being located at Monmouth and Usk.

This had been remedied by the creation of two courtrooms Civic Centre, but the Lord Chancellor had insisted on new judges' lodgings: hence the purchase of the house in Stow Park.

The government included a clause in Schedule 3 of the Courts Act to the effect that local authorities would cease to be under obligation to provide judges' lodgings after January 1975.