Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Dining Hall at Rydal School
Colwyn Bay, Conwy, Wales
A Grade II listed building in Colwyn Bay, Conwy, designated on 25 July 1994.
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade II
- Broad class
- Domestic
- Date of designation
- 25 July 1994
- Locality
- Colwyn Bay
- Community
- Colwyn Bay
- Unitary authority
- Conwy
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates
- 53.29533, -3.73355
- Cadw reference
- 14700
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesNational Library of ScotlandDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesLlyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales
5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1795 map "To Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart ... the map of the six counties of North Wales is most humbly inscribed by his obedient humble servant" (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales).
Historical maps covering this location
- 1795 · To Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart ... the map of the six counties of North Wales is most… (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales)
- 1883 · Watershed map England, Wales 3. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1898 · 95 Rhyl (Hills) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1900 · Denbighshire Sheet III.NE (National Library of Scotland)
- 1901 · Sheet 9 and 10. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
Cadw's description
Location
Facing Pwllycrochan Avenue and forming the central range of the 2 courtyards which comprise the main buildings of Rydal School.
History
Rydal School was founded by T G Osborn, a leading methodist Educationalist in 1885, and was first established in a house known as Rydal Mount which forms the nucleus of the present old house. The school expanded on this site in the years which followed, and the school hall was built in 1900, to designs of T E Lidiard James, architect, of London. It was extended in the same style by S Colwyn Foulkes of Colwyn Bay in 1957-8.
Exterior
Single storeyed over a over a basement (housing the kitchens), in the style of an Oxford or Cambridge college hall, using a Tudor Gothic style. Rusticated coursed and squared rubble with slate roof. Gabled entrance porch up steps set back at the N end, and stair turret (to former organ loft) at NW angle of hall; 9 bays (the original hall comprising the first 5 bays), divided by pilaster buttresses and each with 3-light leaded mullioned and transomed window, then full height canted bay window. Embattled parapet; fleche with ogival traceried base surmounts the roof. Similar detail on E-facing elevation.
Interior
10 bay hall, with stone corbels carrying wall posts of braced collar trusses (with additional steel braces in the later bays to the S); dado panelling in simple C16 style. Commemorative stained glass in bay window to E.
Reason for designation
The central building in the Rydal School complex, the hall is an excellent example of the use of a Neo-Tudor architectural vocabulary especially associated with
educational buildings.
Nearby in the register
- Hunt House at Rydal SchoolDomesticunder 1 mi
- Old House, Rydal SchoolEducationunder 1 mi
- Memorial Hall at Rydal SchoolRecreationalunder 1 mi
- Costain Buildings at Rydal SchoolEducationunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.