Ivy Tower

Cadw's description

Location

Approximately 0.7km S of Tonna church, prominently sited on high ground to the E of Dan-y-lan Farm.

History

Erected c1780 by John Johnson, architect of Leicester, as an eye-catcher folly at the NE end of the Gnoll grounds. It comprised a 2-storey castellated summer house.

Johnson had an extensive private practice and built or altered many country houses, mostly in Essex and the Midlands. He was a business associate of Sir Herbert Mackworth, with whom he established a bank in Bond Street in 1785. Mackworth employed Johnson to design the castellated Georgian front to Gnoll House, while Johnson's other major work in S Wales was Clasemont House near Swansea of c1775 but demolished in 1819.

The extensive park and grounds at the Gnoll had been laid out for Sir Humphrey Mackworth 1724-7, followed by its extension with an informal cascade in the 1740s. The Ivy Tower and other follies, including a gazebo sited above a grotto, were added by Sir Herbert Mackworth in the 1780s. The late C18 was the heyday of the Gnoll grounds, although it was revived in the C19 by the Grant family and Charles Evan Thomas. The estate was acquired by the local authority in 1923. The Ivy Tower, detached from the main grounds, was gutted by a fire in 1910 and has subsequently fallen into ruin.

Exterior

A ruined and ivy-clad 2-storey castellated tower of rubble stone. It is octagonal and buttressed in the lower stage and circular above, with a string course between. The lower stage has segmental-headed windows in the cardinal directions, with a segmental-headed doorway to the SW, while the upper storey has windows and a doorway on the SE side with 2-centred heads, above which are small quatrefoil recesses. The castellated parapet projects forward.

Inside is a fireplace on the NW side with the chimney accommodated in the castellations.

Reason for designation

Listed for its architectural interest as a prominent example of an eye-catcher folly associated with the Gnoll Estate.