History

Dated 1877 and by T.M. Lockwood, architect of Liverpool. It was built for Andrew Wood, an anchor-manufacturer from Saltney, Flintshire. It re-opened as municipal offices in 1937, and a plaque in the entrance hall records its opening by David Lloyd George.

Exterior

A Domestic-revival style former country house of 2 storeys and attic. Walls are snecked rock-faced stone with freestone dressings, under steep tile roofs on overhanging eaves and with prominent lead finials and rock-faced stone stacks. The main house forms a rectangular double-depth block which has separate roof spans for each elevation. Offset in the middle above the entrances, is a higher near-square lantern with bands of glazing in each face and a steep hipped roof with finial (bearing the date 1877) and weathervane. Windows are mainly 2-pane horned sashes in freestone surrounds, and the upper storey windows have a moulded sill band. Main elevations retain original cast-iron rainwater heads and downpipes with lozenge-pattern decoration.
The main entrance front faces SW and is asymmetrical of 7 unequal bays. The entrance is R of centre in bay 5, in the centre of a lower 2-storey section of 3 bays. It has a lean-to timber-framed half-glazed porch on a stone dwarf wall. It has turned angle posts, and moulded mullions and transoms to leaded glazing. Central double doors have boarded panels, and their mullioned overlight incorporates a central cusped circle. The bays R and L (4 and 6) have pairs of windows with replacement pivoting lights, and single windows above flanking a triple sash window over the porch. The wider gabled R end bay (bay 7) has 2 sash windows of 2 over 1 panes, flanking a central buttress. The 1st-floor oriel window is on freestone corbelling incorporating a foliage frieze. It has 2 segmental-headed sash windows, above which are 4 freestone mullioned panels with flowers in high relief. The oriel has a lean-to roof, above which the freestone gable is panelled with low-relief foliage and lozenge patterns and incorporating a round central panel. Bays 2 and 3 on the L side of the entrance section are higher, 2 storeys and attic, with gambrel roof over bay 3. Bay 3 has paired sash windows in ground and first floors, and paired sashes to an attic half-dormer under a lean-to roof against a set-back gable with disc-pattern freestone panel. Bay 2 is narrower, with single sash windows in ground and 1st floors, and attic skylight. The 1st bay is higher, wider and gabled, and balances the R end bay. It has a coped gable on moulded kneelers. Ground and 1st floor have 2 windows, and the attic has a 2-light mullioned window with sashes, beneath a pointed tympanum with freestone panelling of foliage and lozenges in similar style to bay 7, and moulded sill band with foliage stops.
The asymmetrical SE front is 4 unequal bays. It has a lean-to veranda against bays 3-4, on turned wooden posts on stone bases, and simple brackets. At the ends it has trusses with openwork tracery. The R end has stone steps. The central full-height canted bay window (bay 3) has replacement French doors and glazing in the ground floor. It has a wooden 3-light mullioned-and-transomed window to the 1st floor, which has leaded glazing above the transom. The bay window has a lean-to roof against a panelled gable with finial, similar to the freestone gables of the entrance front. Bay 1 has a replacement floor-length cross window, and bay 2 a glazed door (originally opening to the conservatory that is shown here on the 1889 Ordnance Survey), below 2-pane sash windows on the 1st floor. The ground-floor windows open to a former terrace. In the 4th bay is an external stack.
The NE front mirrors the SW front in its overall structure, although the details differ and there are only 2 bays in the lower entrance section. The 2-storey entrance section has a pointed arch with continuous chamfer and hood mould. It has a pair of contemporary wrought-iron gates with overthrow. Inside the porch is a boarded door with strap hinges, and side and overlights with wooden mullions and transoms and leaded coloured glass. Above, the entrance bay has 2 sash windows. The narrow bay on its L side has single sashes. The 1st bay is a broad full-height canted bay window with 2 sashes, under a steep hipped roof with ornate finial. The 4th and 5th bays have a higher roof line, with hipped roof over the 4th bay. In the ground floor bay 4 has a broad canted bay window with parapet and 2 sash windows. Above are 2 windows and a single window to a hipped half-dormer with moulded brick finial. Bay 5 has single windows and a similar half-dormer with finial. The wider gabled bay 6 has 2 windows in ground and 1st floors. Its 3-light mullioned attic window incorporates 8-pane sashes, under a pointed arch with hood mould and freestone panelled tympanum similar to those of the front elevation.
The NW side has 1-storey advanced wings. Above them, the main range has a central 3-light mullioned attic window with raised eaves, and a lean-to roof against a panelled freestone gable with finial. The 1-storey projections comprise 3 parallel 1-storey ranges, of which the central is higher, under a gambrel roof, and has 4 skylights in its SW roof slope. The SW front is 3 bays. It has an altered central bay, now the main entrance to council offices, with glazed doors and a high entrance canopy. The R-hand bay has 2 cross windows of frosted glass, under a steep timber-framed gable with incised sun and foliage patterns in the plaster, and with ridge tiles and moulded finial. The L-hand bay has 3-light mullioned and transomed window with fixed lights, with lean-to roof against a steep gable with raised eaves, moulded finial and ridge tiles (the gable may originally have been decorated similar to the R-hand bay but is now blank render). The opposite 3-window NE side has irregular fenestration. On the L side is a 3-light mullioned window incorporating 8-pane horned sashes. It is framed by a steep hipped roof with finial, subsidiary to a broader hipped roof with finials. Next R is a 2-light broad mullioned window with replacement glazing, and similar 1-light window to the R end. A stack is L of centre.

Interior

Entrances from the SW and NE fronts have vestibules with half-glazed screens and doors, incorporating leaded coloured glass. The overlight to the SW main entrance incorporates an 'AW' monogram.
A central full-height entrance hall has a panelled wainscot and moulded door surrounds with panelled boarded doors. A freestone Gothic fireplace in the SE wall has a segmental arch and foliage cornice, above which are 3 foliage panels, the central incorporating in raised letters 'AW 1877', the L-hand 'GSW' and R-hand 'PW'. The overmantel is on corbelled shafts. An open-well stairway on the NW side of the hall has turned and relief-moulded newels, turned balusters on a moulded string, and panelled dado. The stairway is top-lit and separate from the lantern over the hall. The lantern has moulded brackets on corbels, supporting etched glass panels.
The 1st floor has a 4-sided gallery on corbelled brackets, with panelled front incorporating open quatrefoil panels below balusters. Facing the stair the gallery has a 3-bay screen of turned posts to bracketed relief-moulded timber lintel. Above the gallery is a string course and corbelled moulded brackets to the central lantern. The lantern has leaded glazing with coloured glass to upper lights, and panelled sides and ceiling. A 1st-floor corridor leading off to the NW side, and a small lobby on the NE side, have segmental arches on foliage brackets.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as a well-preserved and well-detailed late C19 country house of definite character, successfully converted to offices in the C20.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29483113

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

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  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
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  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)