Pengwern Hall (Pengwern College)

Cadw's description

Location

300m SE of the Bodelwyddan to Rhuddlan road.

History

Pengwern Hall was rebuilt by Sir Edward Lloyd, bart, who died in 1795. The 2 detached blocks at the front flanking the forecourt are dated by a rainwater head to 1770, but the main Hall is in a quite different style with Palladian echoes and is perhaps a little later, apparently replacing a mansion which was mentioned in Lhwyd's Parochialia in c1699. The date 1778 has been suggested for Sir Edward Lloyd''s rebuilding.
Sir Edward married into the Mostyn family, and when the 6th baronet Mostyn died in 1831, Sir Edward Price Lloyd became the first baron Mostyn and lived at Pengwern until his death in 1854.
Part of the house was destroyed by fire in 1864, losing its original symmetry by the loss of the upper storey of the E wing and of part of the main range. It lost a prominent main roof. In the restoration the upper storey at the left of the main range was replace by a dummy wall. Urns decorating the parapets and copings at front were also lost. In the interior only the W wing retains original features.
The Hall later came into the ownership of Sir William Grenville Williams, fourth baronet Bodelwyddan, who lived here until his death in 1904; under his successor, Sir William Willoughby Williams, the Bodelwyddan property was broken up and Pengwern leased to Col Parry. It was later leased by J H Wynne, and finally bought by Miss Long for a girls'' school. After the closing of the school in 1948 the property fell into decay until taken over by the present owners, the Society for Mentally Handicapped Children, in 1966.

Exterior

A stuccoed mansion painted cream with dressings in a darker cream colour; the walls are said to be stone with brick facing; slate roofs of low pitch concealed behind parapets. Numerous brick chimneys. Despite losses much of the original form remains.
The main block facing S is of 3-storeys and 1+3+1 windows, with a 3-bay pediment over giant Ionic pilasters and a rusticated ground storey. The left flank of the main block survives to 3-storeys (the top storey a dummy, the second storey with a Palladian window) but the right flank is now only single storey. To the left of the main block is a canted 2-storey 3-window wing, and to the right a similar wing reduced to one storey. Twelve-pane sash-windows generally; restored 6-pane windows in top storey.
The rear (N) elevation also consists of a main 3-storey block with a pedimented centre, flanks and wings, irregularly fenestrated but retaining many sash windows. The right wing is of 2-storeys, with Palladian windows above and below.
The W elevation is also pedimented at centre, and retains 3 sash windows above and one below. The E side of the building is irregular, terminating in a group of single storey outbuildings fronting the approach drive to the Hall.

Interior

Large entrance hall with a staircase at its rear, rising right to left against the rear wall, with decorative iron balustrade, probably post-dating the fire of 1864. In the front and rear rooms of the W wing are original plaster cornices and at front an Adamesque central ceiling feature.

Reason for designation

A fine late-Georgian mansion, preserved in a manner which enables much of its original character to be appreciated.