Hen Wrych

Cadw's description

Location

Immediately S of the road, behind the castellated Hen Wrych lodge, at the eastern boundary of the community.

History

An ancient site, originally a junior house of the Morgans of Golden Grove. By the late C16 the seat of the Lloyds of Gwrych, of whom John Lloyd was High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1675. The present building is of several periods and is a fragment of what was, until the early C19, a much more substantial house. It consists essentially of a mid or third-quarter C16 storeyed lateral chimney house, with early C17 additions possibly incorporating an earlier, late- or sub-medieval block. To the C17 period belong several sandstone mullioned and cross-windows, mostly in situ. The house was reduced and rejustified following the relocation of the seat to the new Gwrych Castle by Lloyd Bamford Hesketh c1819; at that time cosmetic alterations were carried out, including the provision of some Gothic windows, as employed throughout the estate to Thomas Rickman's standard designs; thereafter the house was tenanted. The rear (S side) was further altered in the later C19.

The house was the childhood home, from 1800 to 1809, of Felicia Hemans (nee Browne), the celebrated poet.

Exterior

Storeyed house, roughly of Z-plan; of rubble construction with slate roofs and plain chimneys with cornicing. Asymmetrical N (entrance) front with main range advanced with its right-hand section gabled. Segmentally-headed entrance to this with modern boarded door. Modern window in C19 opening to raised ground-floor above. To the L a second-quarter C19 Tudor-arched window with small-pane iron-framed glazing with intersecting tracery head; a returned sandstone label above relates to an earlier window. In the gable apex a 2-light mullioned window with moulded label and modern glazing. To the L an early C17 mullioned and transomed cross-window with returned label; modern glazing. To the L a further, similar label relates to a blocked cross-window as before; above, under the eaves, a small 2-light mullioned window. Beyond this is a flush lateral chimney with gable rising from the roof line. Further 2-light mullioned windows to the basement floor, together with a modern window. The set-back range to the R has a Tudor-arched window, glazed as before, to the R. To the L a small late C19 2-light window in a former entrance opening. Contemporary squat 3-light wooden mullioned window to first floor R, with reset square C17 window to L: sandstone surround. Further 2-light mullioned windows to the return wall of the main, gabled section, that to the first floor with moulded label and that to the ground floor missing both label and mullion. Symmetrical 3-window main rear block with late C19 window openings to both floors, those to the first within gabled dormers; plain bargeboards, projecting stone cills and modern glazing.

Interior

Early C19 stick-baluster, single-flight stair to entrance hall with swept pine rail. Stopped-chamfered beamed ceilings to ground and basement floor rooms, that to former hall framed in three ways, that to basement room at L with broach stops and wall corbelling. Corbelling to the front-facing wall of this room relates to a lateral fireplace in the room above. This has a square-headed, ovolo-moulded C17 sandstone surround; a box-framed oak partition to the L is contemporary, the C17 ovolo-moulded doorcase to which has been removed (for storage) by the present owner (5/97). Wide lateral fireplace to hall (rear range) with primary corbelling supporting a C19 plastered brick arch. Further, primary fireplaces to former parlour (now kitchen, off hall), and chamber above; both are end fireplaces and have corbelled-out, chamfered oak bressummers. Morticing evidence in two lateral beams in the entrance hall relate to former post-and-panel partitioning. Further beamed ceiling to front-facing first-floor room; original 3-bay collar trusses with pegged, raking struts to hall range roof.

Reason for designation

Listed for the special historic interest of its origins as a sub-medieval gentry house and as the childhood home of the poet Felicia Hemans. Group value with other listed items at Hen Wrych.