Mount Alyn Lodge (including gate piers at drive entrance)

Cadw's description

Location

Situated towards the top of Croes Howell Hill adjacent to the south side of the B 5102. The Lodge lies roughly 0.4km to the west of the lower Lodge and Yew Tree Farm.

History

Mount Alyn Lodge formed one of the entrance lodges to Mount Alyn (demolished for quarrying operations) the country seat of Alexander Balfour begun in the 1870's. Balfour was a Liverpool merchant and shipowner whose commitment to the Temperance Movement also led him to have built the former Coffee House in Station Road, Rossett, now the National Westminster Bank. The Lodge appears to be an extension to the east and west of an earlier building, probably one of the cottage ornees of the Trevor estate built under John Boydell's stewardship in the early C19 and some of the fabric suggests an earlier building is incorporated into this as was common practice.

Exterior

The building is composed of three blocks, a gate-keepers lodge of four bays to the west, a carriage house to the centre, and accommodation of three bays to the east. Of brick construction, with dentilated eaves, under pitched slate roof. Two storeys to the west, three storeys to the east. The western block is rendered and retains twelve pane sash windows to the northern elevation and an original sideways sliding sash to the cottage ornee portion of this block. At ground floor is a late C19 wooden porch with carved and pierced barge boards. The western elevation is three sided to allow views of the drive to Mount Alyn. The eastern block has a two storey canted bay projection topped with Victorian decorative ironwork and a two storey projecting gable end from the central carriage house section. Four-pane sash windows to the northern elevation and a separately articulated stair turret to the southern elevation capped by a pyramidal rood and lead ball finial. To the north the central section is unfenestrated, to the south is a segmental arched carriage opening and open windows. To the east of the arch is an attached wall leading to the former wash-house and toilet. The Cottage Ornee section has been converted to a garage at ground floor level, probably early C20, and has a corrugated iron roof projecting from floor level. To the first floor are three blocked windows under an open triangular pediment with dentilated details which retain some original render. To either side of the drive are two Gothic Revival gate posts of carved stone with decorative ironwork to linking stone walls. Each gate-post has a two-centered drip stone over a trefoil inset panel. The carved foliage to the cusps and drip stone are left unfinished to the east.

Interior

Western block said to retain no original fixtures and fittings, exposed floor joists boarded over. Access to eastern block not possible at time of re-survey (1996).

Reason for designation

Listed as a substantial example of a C19 lodge retaining historic character.