Broom Hall

Cadw's description

Location

Broom Hall lies in its own parkland, E of Pwllheli, and on the N side of the Criccieth to Pwllheli Road.

History

The property was originally known as Werglodd-fawr. It was built in 1779-1782, possibly an early work of Joseph Bromfield [Broomfield], architect of Shrewsbury. The property, which included an earlier house on the site, was acquired in 1773 by the philologist Rowland Jones (c1716-1773). A native of Llanbedrog in Llyn, he became a London attorney and married a London heiress whose property was based around Golden Square. He died the same year he purchased Werglodd-fawr and, during the minority of his son, Rowland Jones (jnr) (1771-1856) the house was demolished and a new handsome gentry house of great sophistication was built under the supervision of the boy's paternal uncle, Thomas Jones, also a London attorney. The change of name to Broom Hall occurred in c1812. Rowland Jones jnr. added the later gatehouse, dated 1830. The property was inherited in 1856 by William Jones of Ysgubor-hen, a first cousin once removed, but it eventually descended down the female line to the Evans family. In the late C19 an extension took place to the rear of the service block, adjoining the kitchen garden wall. Further modifications included removing the external door from the dining room and adding a garden room. Modifications made since two late C19 photographs include raising the floor level of the verandah and replacing the slender iron columns with the present shorter Tuscan ones, the removal of the decorative wrought iron porch encasing the SE doorway and the addition around the main NE door of a semicircular arch with a triangular glazed pediment breaking the roof line of the verandah, the inclusion of glazing bars to the central first floor window on the SE front and the removal of tall C19 decorative chimney pots. The modifications might possibly have been carried out by the last resident squire, William P O Evans (1905-1937), a known antiquary and the man responsible for the renovation of nearby Penarth-fawr. The house was sold in 1946, and has been carefully modernised in the late 1990s.

Exterior

Built of brick and rendered externally, with hipped slate roofs and wide eaves. A main 3-storey, approximately square, residential block measuring 18.68m x 15.44m raised on a paved platform, with a service block of the same width and 6.8m deep, necked off at the back, to which a garden room has been added on the SW. The main front, facing SE, is of 5 window bays, with a central entrance under the surrounding verandah of 7 bays; this has a lean-to fish-scale slated roof supported on cast iron Tuscan columns which returns along the sides of the block at both ends. The doors are a pair, partly glazed, with a decorative lead fanlight over, all set within a moulded architrave. 16-paned sash windows, the boxes concealed, and the glazing set in an iron frame with very slender glazing bars, of later date. Similar sash windows on the first floor, the centre one having a segmental pediment on brackets, also a later modification. The second floor has 12-paned single sashes. Boxed eaves. Five polished slate steps rise centrally on to the verandah terrace, which is also slated. On the SW elevation the front range of rooms has a blind window on each floor, and two bays light the rear rooms on each floor, the verandah returning to the wall of the garden room, which projects 6m from the face of the building. A pair of glazed doors face the rose garden. The NE elevation is similar, the verandah abutting a wall concealing the external cellar stair. In the fourth bay from the front, a side entrance consisting of a panelled door and side lights with a wide decorative fanlight over. This is reflected in the verandah by a pediment over an arch. The rear service range is of 2 storeys with a hipped roof, various windows, mostly tripartite 12-pane sashes on the ground floor and a fine cupola with ogee lead roof. Central stack. It has a later extension to the SE up to the kitchen garden wall, and also with a hipped roof.

Interior

The plan of the house is typical of its period, having an axial main entrance hall leading through an arch to the central rectangular stair hall, lit from a large window on the half landing of the stair. On either side, reception rooms with stacks on the internal walls, the rear room on the SW side probably being the dining room with an arched recess and cornice with a swag frieze. A former opening from this room, now filled with a window, is defined by external pilasters, and leads to steps to the garden. Six-panelled doors from the hall lead to the large front reception rooms, probably drawing room and library, which have moulded chair rails, moulded plaster cornices and moulded decorative friezes, varying in detail in each room. The fine marble fireplaces mentioned by RCAHM have been stolen.

Reason for designation

Included as a remarkably sophisticated gentry house of the late C18, with carefully designed elevations and excellent detail, all to a metropolitan level of sophistication.