History

Large gentry house with a complex ground plan and development. The fabric of the original house (possibly C18 or early C19) is retained in the rear block of the present dwelling which was extended to form a double-pile plan in the mid C19. Service wings were also added to either end of the original house plan, probably in the mid-late C19, as was a solicitors office, probably built c1880s (now with visible RSJ joists from early C20 re-build). The house has been re-roofed and sympathetically restored in the late C20, with the replacement and addition of some new windows.
The present owners are descended from the Prichard family, who bought the property in 1806, and the original house may have been built when they acquired the property. On the Tithe Map of the parish, 1840, the house is shown as a simple rectangle alongside some of the early agricultural buildings on the site. The farm is owned by Robert Prichard, Attorney, and his wife Anne, an extensive farmstead of over 119 acres(48.2 hectares). In the Census Returns of the following year the Prichard family, then including just their daughter Elizabeth, employed 4 female servants and 4 agricultural labourers, the latter recorded as living in the cowhouse. The farm later became home to to Robert's son, Thomas Prichard (1846-1920), a solicitor and agent to the Meyrick Estate, and the farmstead has passed down through the family to the present owners. Much of the extensive social history of the farm was passed down from the parents and grandparents of the current owners who remember the prosperous early years of the C20 when there were 17 agricultural workers on the farm, as well as a number of domestic staff in the house.
The farm ranges were developed in two main phases; in the early C19 a number of new (freestanding) buildings were built to the N, W and E of the farmhouse, including a corn barn, cowhouse, stable and hammel/cartshed. These buildings are characterised by stone voussoir heads to the openings. In the mid-late C19 the buildings were extended to allow stabling for a greater number of horses, storage for carts and carriages, and extra grain storage areas, the latter a result of the need to feed more horses, and the mechanised production methods employed. These later buildings employed similar stonework, and retain the arched form of the openings, made in brick.

Exterior

A predominantly Georgian gentry house with late C19 remodelling. Two storeys with attics, extended to a double-pile plan, with additional wings to rear and either side of the main block. Built of rubble masonry, rendered elevations throughout. Slate roof with stone copings and rendered brick stacks; the main (double-pile) block of the house with diagonally set triple stacks with capping, a rectangular brick gable stack at NW (rear) gable.
The principal elevation faces away from the agricultural ranges, to the SE; the main part of the house to the R a 2-storey, 3 window range with central entrance. The entrance is now housed in a modern, canted, timber glazed porch, with 16-pane hornless sash window over; flanking the entrance are late C19 full-height canted bays with hornless sash windows. To the left of the main part of the house is an added late C19 block, the ground floor housing 'the solicitor's office', with wide full-height canted bay. Set back from the R side of the main part of the house is another added late C19 block, housing the 'lower kitchen' in the ground floor room and the nursery above; now with modern full-height canted bay to match that of the opposite wing.
The rear elevation comprises a 4-window range between axial stacks which probably mark the extent of the original house. The entrance is through a lean-to porch offset to the L. Advanced wings either end. The original part of the house latterly provided service accommodation, with the 'upper kitchen' to rear R and 'lower kitchen' to L, with 1st floor nursery over. The R advanced wing has a ground floor 16-pane hornless sash window with canted oriel window above; the return has a single storey addition with 12-pane hornless sash to R (SE). The L advanced wing housed the governesses bedroom in the first floor and has a single storey, gabled, dairy wing to L with lean-to privy at the far L (NE) end. The return has ground and first floor 16-pane hornless sash windows; the attic, dairy and ground floor gable window are replacements (the attic window a new opening).

Interior

The principal elevation faces SE, with the principal rooms in the mid C19 block to the front, the service accommodation to the rear, and an axial corridor linking the added service and bedroom wings. The main entrance opens into a wide central hallway with drawing room to R and dining room to L, with C19 moulded covings and panelled doors. The principal staircase is centrally located in the hallway to the rear; a dog-leg stair with a moulded, clasping handrail on shaped balusters. Axial corridors run L and R along the inner wall of the older part of the house, with staircases either side. The rear block (the original house) housed the 'upper kitchen' to the L (used by the housekeeper/butler), which retains a range and hooks to ceiling. To the R are narrow pantrys. A cellar is reached from the back hallway. The 'lower kitchen' is in the R (N) wing (with nursery over); the dairy is in the single-storey wing to the rear, formerly with a horse works powering the churn, the central mechanism for which survives in situ in the garden to the W. The nursery and governesses room is reached by a separate staircase in the rear wing, which also leads to a small loft above. To the L front of the house is late C19 addition, built to serve as a solicitor's office. The first floor housed a total of 9 bedrooms. A large servants loft in the attic to the rear part of house retains boarded doors and partitions.

Reasons for Listing

Listed as an early C19 gentry house, remodelled in the late C19 but retaining Georgian character, which forms the centrepiece of the unusually comprehensive farmstead group at Llwydiarth Esgob Farm. The house reflects the expanding fortunes of the estate and the elevated social position of the estate owners.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q25342418

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)