Gwern Hall

Cadw's description

Location

Situated c0.5 km N of Maes Maelor, reached from a drive running NE from Llanarmon Road.

History

Dated 1834, part of the fabric appears to be of earlier date, raising the possibility that there was an earlier house on the site to which this datestone might refer. Sections to the rear are said to have been demolished and the battlemented top to the left-hand range, which is shown on an undated photograph, has been demolished and the tower reduced in height.

Exterior

Gothic/Jacobean Revival style, reflecting the sub-medieval use of crow-stepped gables in Denbighshire. Coursed and squared rubble with ashlar dressings, slate roof, 2 storeys and an attic. The house consists of three linked ranges. That to the right is near-symmetrical and consists of paired bays with steep crowstepped gables each with a small centrally placed quatrefoil attic window and 3-light arched mullioned windows to the upper floor. The left hand bay has a flat-headed transomed ground-floor window and that to the right has a central stepped buttress with transomed windows on each side. These bays flank a central projecting gabled porch with a central arched entrance with moulded jambs, behind which is a taller gabled dormer with a window with a cusped head.

Set back and to the left is a tall stone chimney with a coped base and parapet which rises from a buttress. Attached to this is a range with a crenellated parapet and a mullioned window with arched heads on the upper floor and a sash window below. The range to the extreme left steps forward in two stages. The first stage is a former porch with shaped entrance now infilled which has a window. The line of the building breaks forward again and there is a full-height stepped buttress. To the left of this there is a 2-light mullioned window with cusped arched heads to the first floor and a C20 window in an altered opening below. The stonework in this range appears to be less regular and possibly older than the stonework of the rest of the building.

Attached to the right-hand side of the building there is a crenellated wall which continues for c30m and then returns for a short distance. In the angle there is a single storey building with an arched entrance and paired arched windows.

The rear of the building is rendered and has a number of C20 windows.

Interior

This was not inspected at the time of the 1997 survey but it is said to contain some original features including a stair and panelled doors.

Reason for designation

Listed as an unusual and architecturally ambitious house with a principal elevation which is little-altered.