History

Glasfryn is first mentioned in court records for 1491 when Hywel was brought before the justices for fighting. John Ellis, archdeacon of Bangor, who married Jane Lloyd of Trallwyn, bought Glasfryn c1745; her family, the Lloyds, were related to the Cadwaladr and Vaughan owners of Glasfryn in the C16 and C17. The son of the second marriage, Rev Thomas Ellis, married Jane Bulgin, heiress of the Williams' Brondanw estate in Meirionnydd. He was canon of Bangor, and built a park wall around Glasfryn and laid out the gardens based on the layout of St John's College Cambridge where he was fellow and tutor. The Rev John Williams-Ellis 1808-1882 married Harriet, heiress of the Clough estates near Denbigh. He enlarged the house in the 1830-40s. Their son took the name Clough to inherit Plas Clough, the house built by Sir Richard Clough in 1567. The Rev Clough Williams-Ellis, the bard Sion Pentyrch, 1833-1913, classical scholar and 3rd wrangler of Sidney Sussex College, married Ellen (May) Greaves, daughter of J W Greaves, founder of the C19 slate industry at Blaenau Ffestiniog. He largely rebuilt the house c1890 and enlarged the estate. An E wing was demolished in 1928 and the kitchen-nursery wing in 1935, creating the front courtyard and a new entrance. The second son of this marriage was Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, architect and builder of Portmeirion, who spent the early part of his childhood here.

Exterior

Tudor-gothic style with vernacular references. The house is built of stone, with slated roofs. Generally 2 tall storeys and attics, consisting of a main range running NE-SW, a block at right angles at the NE end which probably included some earlier work identified by its stonework, and a stair tower. The main entrance is in the slightly projecting SE end, within a single storey range infilling the N angle. The impressive entrance front faces the gravelled yard, is of snecked rock-faced stone with freestone dressings. Asymmetrical, comprising a gabled block on the right containing the arched main entrance, with a fine multi-panelled door, the block extended to the left as a single storey projection with a flat roof and parapet. Behind, the stair tower has a large 4-light mullioned and transomed window, and a 2-light mullioned window above. A moulded string course with blocked corbel features forms the base of a crenellated parapet, and a higher stair tower in one corner. On the face of the tower, a clock with the initials RG WE and date 1898. To the left of the tower, the building continues for 3 bays, faced in small knapped black stone, with a high-pitched slate roof ending with a coped gable and large 4-flue stack. Repeating timber mullioned and transomed windows on the ground floor; mullioned only to the upper floor. This front of the house continues as a high wall separating the front garden from the yard, connected by a large arched opening.

The garden front of the house is also asymmetrical, with paired gables to the left: entrance in the right hand gable, which is advanced from the stair tower. Main range expressed as triple gabled block recessed to the right, with 3 single storey gabled wings advanced from it. Porch has freestone lower stage, in the form of an early Elizabethan revival arch between pilasters, triglyph and shields frieze and pinnacled parapet. Central coat of arms. The first floor has a 3-light mullioned window with leaded glass, and a single narrower light in the coped gable. To the left, an advanced gable with mullioned windows - 4-light to the ground floor, diminishing to 3- and 2-light in the attic gable. To the right, 3 rendered and gabled single storey structures, the outer two having the date 1931 on a hopper head, and, behind the three gabled structures three steeply pitched gables of the original range. Many stone chimneys, the tops freestone with side vents under a slab cornice.

Interior

The through hallway from the porch door from the garden front, is panelled, and opens on the right to the impressive dining room, built in a single storey gabled section on the garden front. It is panelled in oak, some C17, and was extended in 1932, and has an open 2-bay raftered roof with a central truss. At the rear of the hallway, the late C19 open well stair with a close balustered handrail based on a section of rail at the top landing believed to originate from the early C18 communion table of Bangor Cathedral. Lighting the stair is the 4-light window, containing yellow-stained roundels of C16 Flemish glass with armorial devices relating to the life of Sir Richard Clough and probably originating from Bachegraig in c1831, the house built in Flintshire by Sir Richard Clough in 1567. To the left of the hallway is the drawing room, with elaborate dentilled cornice and fine oak strapwork chimney piece and portrait of Sir Richard Clough, the fireplace itself lined with figured Delft type tiles of the C17. Dado panelling, the top frieze containing remarkable detailed Biblical scenes in finely worked alabaster. In the porch, heavy beam sections bearing carved elementary vine scroll, probably C16. The far NE end is now divided off as a separate flat.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a good example of a gentry house of the late C19, incorporating earlier fabric, designed in a Tudor Gothic style as a picturesquely asymmetrical composition, with some vernacular reference in its detail. Also important for the historical associations as the childhood home of the famous Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q17740062

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)