House adjoining Bryn Orme

Cadw's description

Location

On the street line.

History

One of two pairs of late C19 reflected villas designed with considerable ingenuity and flair. The manner in which the design has utilised the steep slope of the hill, and has quoted details from the castle and town walls is quietly impressive and shows an ambition and understanding beyond the usual vocabulary of Victorian villa architecture. Details such as the battered plinth, careful corbelling and the contrast between rough-dressed limestone walling and sandstone quoining are features directly copied from medieval practice and give a consciously medievalising theme; this is reinforced by the medieval walls and corner tower immediately to the rear of the group which no doubt helped to inspire such aspects.

Exterior

Belongs to a group of 2.

Bryn Orme (including terrace revetment walls) and House adjoining Bryn Orme.

A pair of semi-detached villas. Of rough-dressed, snecked limestone construction with yellow sandstone dressings and quoins; battered plinths and plain stringcourses, with plain stone chimneys having slanted capping stones. Hipped slate roofs with tiled ridges and deep eaves and verges. Each unit is L-shaped and has its entrance on the return away from the street, with a storeyed, semi-octagonal bay to the corner, corbelled-out from the plinth. The entrance is recessed in a central bay and has an adjacent angled return with a window on the ground floor; above the latter is a triangular wooden oriel supported on cusped braces and covered by an extension of the roof. Above the entrance itself is a further small window. Plain glazing throughout with tilting casement sections; original 4-panel part-glazed doors. The road-facing elevation of each pair is symmetrical, with paired windows to the centre and flanking turret-like corner bays. The first-floor windows of the central bays break the eaves and have higher hipped roofs. The down-hill facing unit (Bryn Orme) has an additional 3-light, flat-roofed dormer to the roof, giving views over the Vale of Clwyd.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special interest as one of 4 late C19 houses conceived as two reflected pairs, showing considerable subtlety and sophistication in their design and grouping, as well as in the way in which they relate to their context.

Group value with other listed items in Bull Lane and with the Town Walls to the rear.