History

1792-9 country house designed for Col John Colby by John Nash, repaired 1828 by W Hoare and Son of Lawrenny, and with c.1830 ashlar Doric N addition, attributed to Nash (without documentation). Remodelled 1902-7 by F Inigo Thomas for John V Colby, including formal terraced gardens.

Exterior

Square, two-storey-and-attic, five-bay original house with deep bracketted eaves, and three-bay pediment on each front, pyramid roof, slightly off-centre diagonal apex stack and big E stack. Before 1902 plain stucco elevations, though originally roughcast, with arcading over the ground floor centre windows. Ashlar N front 5-bay addition with Doric columns, broken forward as centre porch. The house was reclad in 1902-7, unpainted roughcast with heavy rock-faced grey Forest of Dean stone quoins and window surrounds with triple keystones. Pediment lunettes replace Nash's originals except in E pediment, but the basic window spacings and 12-pane sashes remain. The ground before the S front was excavated to expose Nash's basement as a full storey, built out with five-bay balustraded terrace flanked by broad flights of steps. Carved ground floor doorcase. Each side were added single-storey 4-bay wings with arched windows and bracketted eaves cornice, raised on a high terrace. Roughcast two-storey service ranges, to E, forming a narrow kitchen court immediately E of the house and a larger stable court beyond, with a timber octagonal clock-turret (replaced 1828) on the N ridge. The detail here is generally plain, rendered within, with casement windows and hipped roofs, some early C20 alteration.

Interior

Nash's plan had NE morning-room, NW drawing-room, SW dining-room and SE anteroom, with L-plan circulation via a small octagonal lobby to a rectangular inner hall fully open on E to apsidal stair hall. The c.1830 addition enlarged the NE room, added a square bay to the hall, and a 2-bay space to the right with stairs to the basement. The 1902-7 work transformed the dining-room to a library and added the E dining-room and W ballroom in the wings. Upstairs Nash's plan survives with Edwardian details, such as fireplaces: rectangular centre space with small apse-ended lobby to the S, the main corner bedrooms plain but inventively-planned small dressing rooms between on N, W and S fronts. Fine Gothick plaster to the c.1830 entry and 2-bay lobby to right. The original entrance is a tight octagon, plaster-vaulted with high arches to 4 sides and niches between. The centre rectangle has an oval fluted flat ceiling and broad arch to the stair-hall, which has a rosette to ceiling and a corniced window in the apse. Fine cantilvered stone stair, made in Bristol, with simple iron rail. The library has the Corinthian columned E end from Nash's work, a fine inserted timber 1820s fireplace by J Ramsden of Neath, and early C20 doorcases E and W. The ante-room to the E is plainer with modillion cornice and Edwardian panelled plaster ceiling c.1700-style, raised in the centre in a high fireplace. The dining-room is very ornate, with a low and heavily panelled plaster ceiling c.1700-style, raised in the centre in a high coved ridged rectangle. Ionic W screen, panelled walls and a large E fireplace, with cartouche over. the E ballroom is sumptuous with crossed pairs of columns at each side of the N and S walls. W end Venetian window with ornate plaster over, matched over E door and in the arched recesses N and S, the N recess having a monumental alabaster fireplace with giant swan-neck pediment and flanking swagged obelisks.
The basement retains Nash's plaster vaults and is extended out under the terrace.

Reasons for Listing

Graded I as an important early work of John Nash and one of the finest Edwardian works in Wales.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q17742492

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)