History

A small early C19 country house in castellated style, built for John Oldfield, solicitor and some-time Deputy Lieutenant of Denbighshire. An ex-situ date of 1706 may refer to a previous house on the site or else an earlier house was encapsulated by Oldfield. The house was remodelled in curious Venetian-style Gothic by Lloyd Williams and Underwood; a date plaque of 1881 presumably relates to the work's completion.

Exterior

Country house in Venetian Gothic style; of irregular U-plan around a small rear service court. The main facades are of roughly-squared limestone blocks, randomly-set with fine sandstone dressings; chamfered plinth and slate roofs with plain rectangular chimneys. The front and sides have crenellated battlements, corbelled in the manner of machicolations. Asymmetrical 3-bay entrance facade (facing NE). This has a central section and a slightly recessed L bay of 2 storeys, and a flush R bay of 3 storeys; the latter has a square battlemented turret rising to a further storey at its L corner, flush with the facade. The entrance is to the central bay. This consists of a central entrance with flanking pairs of single-light tracery windows, collectively forming a 5-bay sandstone entrance group. The entrance itself is stepped-up and has a basket arch with blind, recessed panel above; boarded doors. Either side of this are applied shafts with fine foliated capitals and shaft-rings. The flanking windows have tall tracery heads with Venetian-style tracery (in imitation of the Doges Palace), the inner ones with complex vinescroll carving forming a frieze around the sides and top; shafts and capitals as before. Above the entrance group is a canted oriel window with moulded base and similar sandstone tracery; flanking this are tall single-light windows with tracery as before. The flush right-hand bay continues this theme with 4-light tracery windows to the ground and first floors and a group of 3 pointed-arched windows to the second floor; these have moulded labels joined at the returns. The recessed left-hand section has a large canted bay to the ground floor, with 3-light mullioned and transomed window to the front and single-light returns; crenellated parapet to flat roof. Above this is a further 3-light mullioned and transomed window with moulded and returned label (the quirky label stops in characteristic Lloyd Williams and Underwood style).

The L side (facing SE) has an advanced left-hand section, the right-hand bay of which has a square castellated porch; boarded door within. Above this is a further 3-light mullioned and transomed window, with a cross-window and a transomed window to the ground and first floors respectively of the recessed bay to the R; labels as before. The parapet steps up over the porch bay and has a tripartite framed niche with shaped centre and returned label; the label has the incised initials 'JEO' and the date 1881. Contained within the central, shaped niche is a sandstone shield with the inscribed date 1706 and the initials EHM. Beyond this, to the L, the crenellations are discontinued, though the corbelling remains. Here there are simple one, two and three-light mullioned windows and a boarded door with 2-light overlight to the far L.

The R side (NW) has single-light arched, cusped Gothic windows to the second floor and the first bay of the first floor; the remainder are plain 2-part windows with limestone reveals. On the ground floor is a tripartite wooden mullioned and transomed window with relieving arch, and a modern corrugated iron and timber lean-to addition to the L. To the R the wall returns and continues into the hill-slope. At the return there is an external modern stair giving access to a second-floor entrance; beyond this is a Tudor-arched entrance of tooled limestone giving first-floor gallery access to a small service court beyond the wall. The entrance has a Tudor-arched sandstone recess above it with a plain shield and flanking Early English-style shafts and abaci. Beyond the arch is an open upper gallery walk with plain railings, and steps down to the service court at L. The range to the R (SW), which closes the service court to the rear is modern.

Interior

Large entrance hall with stone inner porch; decorative crenellated battlements. Wide galleried staircase in bizarre eclectic Gothic with cusped, pierced tracery balustrade, consisting of elongated quatrefoils and trefoils alternately; of pitch pine with simple oak rail. The gallery has a moulded beamed ceiling with boarding laid in chevron pattern.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special interest as a Victorian Gothic-style country house by Lloyd Williams and Underwood, with earlier C19 core, retaining good character both externally and internally.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29497460

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

• 
  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)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)