Indoor roller-skating rink to W of Stable Courtyard at Creselly House

Cadw's description

Location

Situated just beyond the stable courtyard and to S of Cresselly House. Originally reached from the Rose Garden.

History

Early C20 (said to be c.1910); purpose-built for indoor roller-skating, then becoming a fashionable sport. Cresselly House has long been the home of the Allen family and this building was built by Henry Seymour Allen.

Exterior

Barn-like rubble building with rubble quoins and window jambs and half-hipped slate roof with tiled ridge and finials; central ventilator. The pebbledashed N side was built as the front and has shallow crenellated porch with cement-rendered dressings. The S side has gables over the three large mullioned and transomed windows with small-pane glazing and concrete lintels. Tall square-headed entrance to E end.

Interior

At the N side of the building, centrally, a chamfered segmental arch opens onto a tiled lobby with Gents' and Ladies' toilets to either hand; half glazed and panelled inner doors. Internally there is a utilitarian roof on steel trusses with cambered ties. It is probable that the rink originally had a wood-block floor.

Reason for designation

Included for group value with Cresselly House and associated listed items and for its historic interest as the only known example of its type in West Wales.