Hen llys

Cadw's description

Location

Located on rising ground about 200m N of the road, and accessed by a driveway through the former farm buildings.

History

Built in 1898 by John Douglas of Chester for Mrs Perrins-Williams, replacing an earlier small gentry house on the site.

Exterior

Constructed with squared rubble with red sandstone dressings, and a slate roof. Two storeys and cellar, four bays. The main entrance is an ashlar sandstone shallow porch in Tudor style, with octagonal shafts rising from angle buttresses flanking a wide moulded central arch, over which is a coat of arms in a panel set above a horizontal string, and rising through the parapet. The inscription cut immediately over the door reads +ANNO 1898 DOM+ . The coat of arms has the motto CLEW AWYD CLEW HYDYR LLWYD. The central three bays are gabled, and spaced by recessed narrow half-bays. Stone mullioned and transomed windows with label hoods, but flattened ogee tracery to the 4-light window central over the porch. The fourth, outer, bay on the W end has the upper floor slightly jettied on heavy corbels and has a stepped gable . A further extension to the left has been added in the C20 using similar materials. Paned leaded windows set into the stonework with multiple margin glazing to the lights above the transoms. The E bay has a crenellated 2-storey canted bay with similar windows. Stacks have diagonally set brick shafts flanking a centre stack.

The E facade has a semi-external stack, and a north end bay with corbelled upper floor with stepped gable.

Interior

Not accessible at the time of inspection (September 1996). Said to have panelling and carved woodwork similar to that in the church (see Reference below).

Reason for designation

Included as an important house of the area designed and built by a major fin-de-siecle architect in his own inimitable English Domestic style.