History

Built 1872-3 to the design of G E Street as the Vicarage for St Mary's Church, and built as part of the same contract as the church, at the expense of Robert Bamford Hesketh of Gwrych Castle. The contractor was J Rhydwen Jones of Rhyl, and the total cost, including the church, was £8,000. G E Street, like Butterfield, designed a number of such groups for new settlements or wealthy individuals; the Towyn group is clearly second only to Boyne Hill, Maidenhead, for the quality of both its architecture and the grouping, and being the last of his career, may be said to have profited from over 20 years of professional experience.

Exterior

Built of polygonal local limestone with oolite bands and dressings, and having brick and tile hung gables. Blue and green slate roof laid in a zig-zag pattern. Two storeys and attics, 3 gabled bays, not strictly symmetrical, the central narrower bay set forward and containing the main entrance, and widened to the right under a flat roof. The door is set back under a chamfered stone pointed arch, and the string course above is gabled. Brick and stone chequerboard gable above two stone dressed first floor windows. The two side bays have stone mullioned windows, 3-light and transomed on the ground floor, 4-light to the first floor. Pierced red clayware ridge tiles, and ashlar limestone chimneys, chamfered at the corners, and with a blind trefoil arcade above a string course and clayware pots. The roof is patterned blue and green slate. On the left, a low enclosed pentice corridor with round windows links the study in the house to the vestry of the church.

At the rear, a group of contemporary outbuildings built in similar materials, including the gig house, connected directly to the corridor between the former vicarage and the church.

Interior

Beyond the entrance glazed lobby, the vicar's study lay to the left of the entrance hall, with the drawing room to the right. Six-panelled doors. Moulded timber chimney pieces. The upper floor fireplaces have timber surrounds and round arched iron fireplaces, and four-panelled doors, all with simple chamfered pitch-pine architraves. The main dog-leg stair is also of pitch-pine, it has straight balusters and diagonal struts, the square newels being fluted at the top. The interior has been converted to a nursing home.

Reasons for Listing

Listed Grade II* as one of the three important elements in this outstanding group of buildings by a pre-eminent Victorian architect.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q17744443

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy