Porth y Castell

Location

Set back from the SE side of Ravenspoint Road, overlooking Porth Diana and c950m SW of the Church of St. Ffraid

History

Built 1910-20, one of several houses employing a similar architectural idiom characteristic of the early C20 development of the area as a resort.

Exterior

An asymmetrically planned Arts and Crafts house; a single storey with attics range to left with a 2-storey cross-wing to upper right end. Walls are pebble-dashed rendered; roof of small green slates with broadly projecting wood-bracketted eaves and verges and red-brick end wall and axial stacks. Range to left has a massive hipped roof which breaks forward over a central, double-fronted verandah; right side now enclosed with walling to lower part and large paned light to front, left side open to front with railings of shaped splats and stick balusters; side windows are paired sashes with small paned upper lights. Similarly detailed window to the right of the verandah with the recessed entrance to the far right. Left of the verandah is a bay window of 4-lights of small-paned sashes. In the roof there are 2 dormers, each paired 2-light casement windows, with segmentally pedimented heads. The left gable return has windows similar to those of the verandah sides; a single centrally placed light and a paired light to the rear. The gabled wing to the right has projecting verges over a jettied apex above a canted oriel window of 5-lights; canted ground-floor bay of 7-lights; windows are small-paned casements. The right return has a single storey gabled verandah set at right angles to the left end with a small-paned light set under the eaves above, and a canted ground-floor bay of 5 small-paned casement lights to the right. There is a central chimney stack with a wide rectangular base and raking sides forming the front of a gabled dormer and the tall square stack continuing above.

Reason for designation

Listed as a particularly good example of an Arts and Crafts style house of the type characteristic of the development around Porth Diana. With its bold roof detail and massing, the house has a strong architectural character and retains many original features, including the distinctive small-paned casement windows.