History

Built for John Lewis, the owner of Meiros Mill about 1880. Lewis was an alderman by 1892, J.P. by 1910 and given the order of C.B.E. in 1918. Lewis and Co. was one of the most successful of the many woollen industry ventures in the industrial heyday of the community. Queen Mary is said to have been his guest here on one occasion. During World War II, the property was used as a residential home. John Meiros Exton, born here in 1919, died in 1996, and the property was then sold.

Exterior

House with coach house and stable range attached. Late C19 house in snecked stone, with hipped slate roof, stone end stacks and overhanging eaves. Two storeys, 3-bay facade with 4-pane timber sashes, and large entry porch. Stone voussoirs, slate sills. Porch has double half-glazed doors, and fine set of coloured etched glass narrow panels to sides, and overlight with small square flanking lights. Projecting cornice. Basement window to L beneath cast iron grill - stone voussoirs, vertically bisected with 6-pane casement to R of glazed panel.
R side of 3 bays, 2 storeys, in plain stucco render. Similar 4-pane sashes to L bay, replacement 4-pane casements to centre and R. Gabled rear with stone end stack. Shallower L side in stone with similar openings towards R angle - 4-pane sash with slate sills and stone voussoirs to each storey.
Narrower rear service range of 5 bays, 2 storeys in colourwashed rubble. Cambered brick heads to openings, slated roof of two pitches - steeper towards apex. Replacement rainwater goods. Modern, single storey flat-roofed small extension to rear angle with coach-house, obscuring L. bay, ground floor, has metal-framed 8-pane lights to both faces. From left, ground floor has boarded timber door with rectangular overlight to 2nd bay, 4-pane sash to 3rd bay and truncated 12-pane casement to bay 4 with rendered lower section. Bay 5 has modern 4-pane casement inserted into blocked doorway with stone voussoirs. Upper floor has 4-pane sash to 1st and 4th bay, 4-pane casement to 3rd bay. All 1st floor openings with timber lintels and heads at eaves. Lower roof ridge to 1st and 2nd bay - part of a later extension to the house, c.1900.
Former coach house and stable range attached to rear service wing, with coach house parallel to the main dwelling, and the stable at right angles to its rear. Rubble with brick dressings. Coach house has casement windows with swivelling opening lights to first floor, and large window inserted into former coach house door. Gable end of stable adjoins to right: yellow brick stack, louvred roundel to gable and single window on each floor. Its main elevation faces north hand is of 6 bays, stone with yellow brick dressings and cambered heads to lower openings (alternatively doors and windows); timber lintels to upper storey windows.
Attached former coach house in colour-washed rubble stone to rear, at R angles to rear range - forming a 3-sided enclosure with the rear of the main house. Includes gable end of attached former stable range. 2 bays R of gable end - 1st floor L has 2-pane casement beneath swivelling 3-pane, and 12-pane casement with similar swivelling 3-pane upper to R - far R partly obscured by attached range. Ground floor has large metal framed 14-pane light inserted into former coach house door with brickwork beneath and to sides. Gable end has yellow brick end stack, louvered roundel to gable with brick dressings. 4-pane sash to 1st floor and 12-pane casement with swivelling 3-pane upper to ground floor. Cambered brick heads and dressings and slate sills throughout.
Stable facade to N has 6-bay range in rubble stone with yellow brick quoins, dressings and cambered heads to openings. Pitched slated roof. Upper storey windows to bays 1, 3 and 5 with timber lintels and 6-pane uppers above boarded lower sections. Similar openings with cambered heads to ground floor bays 2, 3 and 4. Boarded timber doors to bays 1, 5 and 6. 5 and 6 have 3-pane glazed overlights.

Interior

Central hall with stucco arch on decorative corbels and small ceiling rose. 6-panelled pitch pine internal doors. Plain stucco banded cornice and 2-panelled Victorian window shutters to reception rooms. Main staircase has turned balusters and rail in pitch pine. Marginally-glazed panel above landing, with some coloured panes. Large decorative leaded glazed panel to rear reception room in coloured glass. Cellar has stone steps and stone dividing wall. Rear ranges largely altered 1960s and more recently. Comprised coachman's house, servants' quarters, coach house and stables all inter-connected.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a small late C19 gentry house (with its ancillary buildings): of special interest for its connections with the local woollen industry as a properous mill-owner's house.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29502639

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

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)