Castellau House, Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taff

History

Large C17 storeyed house remodelled internally and externally c1800 in Regency style. Edmund Traherne, major of Llantrisant in 1630, is the first member of this family known to have lived here. It was a later Edmund Traherne (d.1807) who remodelled the house. Bow ends and a full length veranda were added to the main range, and the openings and interior plan altered to form a centralised symmetrical arrangement. A short E wing was retained from the C17 building, and a unit added next to it to house a central staircase. Later in the C19, the E wing was lengthened and a W wing was added. The veranda was removed, except over the entrance, and the flanking French doors were converted to casement windows.

Exterior

Two-storey 6-window front facing S with recessed and bowed returns. Roughcast and whitened under a slate roof with wide boarded eaves supported on cantilevered brackets. The roof is shallow and hipped, and follows the curves of the returns. Rendered stack to R set back from front. String course at 1st floor level which continues around E end. Raised surrounds to door and window openings. Central entrance with panelled double doors flanked by 4-over-4-pane hornless sash windows. Surviving 3-bay section of the veranda over the doorway and flanking windows, consisting of a slate roof supported on slender iron piers with open arches to each bay and radial bars to the spandrels. The upper storey has 6-over-6-pane horned sash windows under flat heads. Pairs of larger 2-light casements to ground floor flanking entrance.

Two rear wings are set in from the bow ends of the front range. The E bow end has a 6-over-6-pane horned sash to the upper storey and a pair of 6-pane windows below. Stack in angle of the 2 ranges, and further ridge stack and end stack to E wing. Its E side has windows irregularly-spaced, mainly 6-over-6-pane horned sashes. To the L of the upper storey is a round-headed light with radial glazing, beyond which are 4 sashes. Downstairs towards the centre is a circular light with radial glazing, flanked by a sash to the L and 2 short 6-pane windows to the R. The gable end has no openings but a bell is fixed to the apex. The W side of this range has a round-headed doorway to the R with a C20 glazed door, and 2 small 6-pane windows to the L. The rear of the front range has a tall round-headed stairlight with margin glazing in an added gabled unit.

The W bow end of the front range has a blind window to each storey. The W rear range has the same arrangement of stacks as the E range. Its W side has 3 windows to each storey, all offset to the R and containing 2-light multi-pane casements. Single-storey lean-to to gable end with 2 lunette windows under voussoir heads and a planked door to its E side. The rear of this wing has openings with C20 multi-pane glazing, French doors to the R with a window above, and a window to the far L with a blind window above.

Interior

Entrance hall with high ceiling cornice decorated with pairs of modillions, foliate bosses and egg & dart moulding. The drawing room is to the L of the entrance hall, and the dining room to the R. To the rear is a full-height round-headed recess flanked by doorways, that to the R blind. The L doorway leads to the stair hall. Detail includes panelled double folding doors within fluted architraves with roundel or rosette motifs at the upper angles, and panelled folding shutters to the windows.

Across the bow end of the drawing room is a pair of Ionic columns of yellow scagliola supporting a cornice. This cornice and the ceiling cornice are decorated with foliage, hops and beading. White marble fireplace to N wall with relief decoration to the chimney piece, depicting a cupid in the centre flanked by scrollwork and leaves. In the dining room is a black marble fireplace in the N wall, a highly ornate ceiling cornice decorated with entwined flowers, foliage and beading, and a ceiling rose with ears of wheat and ribs forming a fan pattern. To the rear of the stair hall is a cantilevered semi-circular stone staircase with decorated tread ends and mahogany hand rail. Fine cast iron balustrades consisting of shaped balusters with central rosettes alternating with double parabolas with scrollwork, also symmetrical about a central rosette. The stairlight has painted glass depicting heraldic emblems. Foliate ceiling rose to landing. Archway to L of stair hall leading to cloakrooms, and doorway to R to kitchen. In the S wall of the stair hall is a segmental-headed recess. The roof is said to retain C17 trusses.

Reasons for Listing

Listed grade II* as a fine Regency-style villa, the interior of particular merit.

External Links

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