Edney Gates, inc flanking screen and attached walls with opposing gates to S end of Middle Court

Cadw's description

Location

Middle Court is located immediately to the NW of Tredegar House separating Tredegar House from the Stable Court, the Edney Gates and screen are set at the N end dividing the house and Stable Court.

History

Tredegar House was the seat of the Morgan family from the early C15 through to the mid C20. The surviving medieval house was incorporated into the South West wing of the much grander, classical house that was built between 1664 and 1672 by Sir William Morgan (d.1680). William married Blanche Morgan, heiress of Judge William Morgan of Therrew, Kings Attorney for South Wales, in 1661 and it seems likely that her dowry financed the rebuilding of Tredegar House and the stables. The gates and formal gardens possibly form part of the works carried out by John Morgan in the first quarter of the C18 after inheriting substantial wealth from his unmarried uncle in 1715. The Edney Gates were made and erected, at a cost of over £1,000, between 1714 and 1718 by the brothers William and Simon Edney who were the most important gatesmiths of Bristol and the West in the C18. The gates and screen act as a clair-voyee, between the Middle Court and the Stable Court beyond, and represent one of only three known works by the Edney Brothers, the other two being the chancel gates at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol and churchyard gates at Tewkesbury Abbey.
The gates have been progressively restored since c1980.

Interior

Early C18 wrought iron double gates with flanking pedestrian gates hung upon wrought iron piers. Symmetrically aligned with the principal entrance of the house. Each gate has a symmetrical panel of delicately scrolled ironwork with embellishments of naturalistic acanthus leaves. The flanking pedestrian gates step down from the principal gateway. The four piers have similar panels to the gates, except that the ironwork is worked in three dimensions from a central vertical member. Each pier has a fine composite capital crowned by a scrolled cresting supporting a sprig of naturalistic foliage. The gates are surmounted by a complexly scrolled overthrow of classical foliage which steps down to the sides from a central foliate finial. Flanking the gates are low brick walls with copings which carry sections of iron railings set between panels of similar wrought iron work. The Middle Court is enclosed to both sides, with a red brick wall bordering with the Orangery Garden to the SW, retains similar wrought-iron gates at S and NE corners.

Reason for designation

Listed grade II* as surviving, in-situ, early C18 gates and for their important position in association with Tredegar house.