Croesvaen

Cadw's description

Location

On the north side of the road, set back in its own garden approximately 80m E of the present main entrance to The Hendre.

History

Built as the estate manager's house to The Hendre in the 1890s, and designed by Aston Webb.

Exterior

A substantial stone-built house in Arts-and-Crafts Tudor style. Built of snecked rock-faced rubble with red tiled roofs and stone chimneys. Irregular plan with coupled gabled wings to the rear of the front range and a service wing (perhaps formerly offices) extended from the NW angle. It is 2-storeyed except for the service wing, which is 1-storeyed. The S facade is a sturdily articulated 4-bay composition, the 1st bay treated as a slightly-projecting tower and the 4th as a gabled receding wing, both these rising above eaves level. In the 3rd bay is a large round-headed arch to a recessed porch which is partly enclosed at the front by the side wall of a short flight of steps to a doorway on the right-hand side of the inner wall. To the left of the arch is a 3-light mullioned window (with some renewed masonry), and under the eaves at 1st floor are mullioned windows of 3, 2 and 3 lights, the last of these larger. The tower-bay to the left has a 2-light window at ground floor, a 1-light window at 1st floor, and a parapet with raised corners and ball finials (that to the right missing). The gabled bay to the right has a low 5-light window at ground floor, a stepped mullioned window above, and gable coping with ball finials. There is one chimney on the ridge at the junction with this wing, and 3 others to the rear. The E side of the house has a large rectangular bay window to the front bay and a small canted bay weindow to the rear bay, both mullioned and transomed, a doorway between these, and 2 small dormer gables above. The W side of the building, which is more utilitarian in character, has (inter alia) a doorway at the junction between the front range and the service wing, and above this, set back in the angle to the rear of the main range, a rectangular extrusion which has a 5-light mullioned window and a convex lead-clad roof with a finial. The 1-storey service wing, which breaks out slightly and has parapets concealing the roof, includes 2 mullion-and-transom windows.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

Included as a sophisticated essay in free Jacobean style by a leading architect; one of a distinctive series of estate buildings designed by Aston Webb for the Hendre estate.