St Benedict's Lodge

Cadw's description

Location

Approximately 200m SW of Talacre Abbey, on the SE side of the main driveway to the house from Gronant.

History

Talacre Abbey was built 1824-9 by Thomas Jones, architect, for Sir Edward Mostyn, on the site of an earlier house. Jones also designed a number of estate buildings, including the Home Farm, and probably also designed St Benedict's Lodge, which is shown on the 1839 Tithe map. It stood at the end of a long drive from the SE of the park, of which adjacent gate piers remain, but the corresponding gate piers and lodge at the SE end of the park are ruinous.

Exterior

A single-storey former lodge nearly square in plan, of tooled coursed stone (painted white) and a pyramidal roof of graded slates, with projecting eaves and central paired stone stack. The roof projects on thin iron posts, creating a covered verandah around the front and L side of the house. Openings, all beneath the eaves, are boarded up. To the front is a central doorway with flanking windows. The L side wall has 2 windows and a doorway to the rear in a projecting rear wing with hipped roof. This wing has a single side window and 2 windows to the rear. Behind the main house is a projecting lean-to with single rear window. The R side wall of the lodge has 2 windows.

Reason for designation

Listed as the best-preserved of the lodges at Talacre Abbey, and and as an integral component of the landscape park associated with Talacre Abbey.