History

A country house in the Jacobean style built in 1922 by Eric Francis of Chepstow for Charles Lee Clay who had previously lived at Piercefield House. It remains in almost unaltered condition. Eric Francis was a cousin of the Clays and designed several houses for the family.

Exterior

The house is built of coursed squared quarry-faced red sandstone rubble which was quarried on the land, and it has stone slate roofs. It is a long rectangular two-storeys-and-attic range with cross gables, with the entrance elevation on the north and the main show elevation on the south (garden) side; this has an E-plan. It is in a straightforward Jacobean/Arts-and-Crafts manner, as already seen in Francis' earlier Mounton House of 1912 for Avray Tipping (qv Mathern Community), although this house is more Jacobean and less Arts-and-Crafts in style.
The north elevation has three unequal gables of which the left hand one is the service end and the other two the main house, the left hand one being more plainly finished without coping or finials. From the left: a single storey L-shaped wing with woodshed and storehouse joined to the kitchen gable, which has two small paned casements below and one above; then comes a connecting piece to the main house with a window below and blind above, then the first bay of the house proper with a large and a small window on each floor plus a tripartite flat topped dormer above in the attic. Then comes the entrance gable which is set slightly forward. It has a doorway with moulded architrave and a large shell hood flanked by two small 2-light casements; above this is a 5-light casement. Coped gable with ball finial at kneelers and apex and a small oculus. The next bay has the ground floor in-line, with the gables and the upper floor set back. The ground floor has a 4-light window with balustrade above and two 2-light windows above this, 3-light attic dormer as before. The end gabled bay has a 3-light 2-transomed stair window and a 2-light casement above and below to the right. The gable is finished as before. The east gable end is plain; the west gable end has a canted stone oriel on the first floor.
The south elevation has a balanced centrepiece with unequal wings. From the left: a recessed wing with a 2-light casement on each floor; two flue stack with diamond set flues. Then comes the centrepiece of five bays; there is a cross-framed casement in both returns of the left hand gable. The outer bays of the five are gabled with coped gables and ball finials at apex and kneelers. 3-light mullion-and-transom window to each floor with an oculus in the attic. The centrepiece is also set forward, but not as much as the wings. It has a 4-light 2-transom window on the ground floor and a 4-light mullion-and-transom window above, all in an arched recess which rises to support a decorated, segmental pediment, a Jacobean feature. This centrepiece is flanked by 3-light windows, with transom on the ground floor. Two stacks with star-clustered flues on the ridge. Right hand gable as before but without windows on the left return; the outer return has french casements to a balcony over a 2-bay arched loggia, the balcony is balustraded. The service wing has an additional stack and eaves gables with more mullion-and -transom windows.

Interior

Only the ground floor was seen at resurvey. The principal room is the Oak Room which takes up four bays of the centrepiece on the garden side. It has elaborate Jacobean style oak panelling, two stone fireplaces with Ionic oak surrounds, and a high relief plaster ceiling of vines and roses intertwined, with additional decoration to the cross beams. The plasterwork was done by Kebles. The panelling has Ionic pilasters to the main opening between the room parts and scalloped heads to doors and niches. The staircase is a plain closed string one with turned balusters and fircone finials to the newel posts. The house still has much of the original plumbing and the electrical fittings and switches etc.

Reasons for Listing

Included at a high grade as a good and unaltered Jacobean style house of 1922 which was designed by Eric Francis, and which retains an unaltered contemporary garden.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wyndcliffe Court at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q8040094

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

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)