Stable courtyard at Treberfydd

Cadw's description

Location

Attached to the NW side of Treberfydd mansion with main entrance from front terrace; also rear drive entrance.

History

Designed by J L Pearson as an integral part of the mansion development of c1850 for Robert Raikes, owner of Treberfydd; dated 1852 on the weathercock above dovecot. Robert Raikes was a lover of horses, confirmed by the high quality accommodation provided here.

Exterior

Four sided stable courtyard in Gothic Revival style. Built of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, plain tile roof with decorative terracotta ridge tiles, ashlar copings and gable finials. Two storey entrance tower has wide moulded pointed arch flanked by 2 buttresses with offsets; cross window to first floor with moulded string course above incorporating grotesque corbels with gargoyles at corners, embattled above, stepped up to right to accommodate staircase; wall left with pointed arched door adjoins the gable end of the courtyard range; wide double doors with vertical panelling, heavily studded; similar chamfered arch to courtyard; porch ceiling of chamfered and stopped beams with close set joists on heavy corbels; steps to right give access to tower interior through Tudor-arched doorway.

Stable range adjoins right. The outer facing gable end has 2 first floor lights and a glazed arrow loop above. Inside the courtyard, the range to right has 3 bays, deeply overhanging eaves between gabled dormers with moulded coping, finials, chamfered mullioned windows, shuttered to centre, altered to left. Three wide Tudor-arched chamfered doorways to ground floor, 2 with original boarded doors with studs and strap hinges; mullioned windows or single lights with chamfered surrounds; decorative stone ventilators to roof.

Similar rear entrance archways opposite though these are set in cross gables, with narrower footpath arch to left, surmounted by square dovecote, each side with 8 niches under an overhanging pyramidal roof, with weathervane on top and date 1852; within archway right is the entrance to saddlery cottage. Adjacent left is the 4 bay carriage house range with wide 4- centred arches, double boarded doors with deep hinges and studs. Rear elevation to this range has roof dormers to carriage house and breaking forward to left the main entrance to the saddlery cottage with very deep cross-gabled roof mullioned windows, chamfered Tudor-arched doorway and tall triple stack. Cross-gabled entrance bay has gateway with boarded ledged and studded double doors, 2-light window above and small pointed arched pedestrian doorway right. Rear of stable range facing lake has cross gable to right with altered windows, cross windows to left and buttresses dividing the units.

Third side of courtyard is a retaining wall to garden and fourth the rear wall to the service yard. Stable courtyard has flags or stone setts and in centre a trough made of 4 stone slabs with iron pump, with well below.

Interior

Stable range right no longer used for horses but converted to living accommodation. Carriage houses retain flagged floors.

Reason for designation

Listed II* as an integral part of the major redevelopment of Treberfydd, the mansion built by J L Pearson for Robert Raikes in 1850-2.
Group value with all other buildings at Treberfydd.