Llanfrechfa Grange

Cadw's description

Location

About 1.5km NW of Llanfrechfa Church; in extensive grounds to E of B4236.

History

Built circa 1848, architect J H Langdon, for Charles Prothero, of the prominent Newport family. The estate was purchased in 1860 by F J Mitchell who had married Elizabeth Harcourt Rolls, of Monmouth. The Mitchells enlarged the house with the addition of a chapel to the rear, and extensions to the L of the entrance where there is a datestone of 1892. After FJ Mitchell died ( in 1915), the house was gradually turned over to institutional uses becoming a mental hospital in 1953.
The stained glass in the chapel (five 2-light windows) is by William Wailes, a disciple of Pugin (1860s), and consists of scenes from the Life of Christ from Nativity to Last Judgement. The stained glass in the staircase window is by A Gerente of Paris (1857), and consists of Saints Athanasius, Catharine, and Alban. The glass formed part of the scheme for All Saints, Margaret Street, London, amongst the most important C19 Gothic Revival churches, by the key architect William Butterfield. It was removed from the church under Butterfield's instructions as incompatible with the building's polychromatic decoration.

Exterior

Small country house. Early C19 Elizabethan Style. Red brick with buff stone dressings; slate roofs. Two storeys and attics. Aligned N-S. South elevation of 3 bays with end gables with elaborate bargeboards; central bay has 2-light mullion and transom window to each floor; 2-storey splayed bay windows in outer bays; with cusped trellis balustrading. To L, (west), 2-storey entrance porch with "Tudorbethan" doorway, flanking buttresses, polygonal upper storey, trellis balustrade, elaborate bargeboards to gable behind; single bay to R (conservatory removed); to L, single storey bay window to library, also with trellis balustrade. To L, set back, 2-storey wing with single-storey extension, and 2-storey gabled block with 2-light upper level window, and on ground floor, datestone "1892". Projecting block with gable and chimney; altered windows and doorways to end.
Rear return of S end has square 2-storey bay window (elaborate bargeboard to gable above); trellis balustrading, 2-light first floor window, altered doorway. To R of this, polygonal chapel (stuccoed) with coped steep gables and 2-light Decorated windows with hoodmoulds. Staircase window above and to rear of chapel. Two storey block with 2-light mullion and transom windows; to R, similar block, set back; advanced gabled bay with elaborate bargeboards, 2-light windows to attic and first floor; 3-light window to ground floor. Further single-window bay. Lower service range beyond.
The former stable /coach house block at NW corner is not included.

Interior

Entrance hall (formerly 2 rooms) with ribbed ceiling; panelling; two Tudor style fireplaces, that to L with genuine carved panels (bought by Mitchells in Central Europe). Stair hall with wooden stair with twisted balusters, panelled ceiling; stair window of 3 lights with important figurative stained glass (see above). The former drawing room (R of stairs) has spectacular Jacobean style moulded plaster ceiling; walls with full-height pilasters; fireplace with apparently genuine C17 overmantel with arcading and caryatids. Room to L of stairs has ribbed ceiling. Library has C19 wooden shelving. Chapel to rear of staircase hall with Gothic doorway; stained glass (see above). Although changes have been made to rest of house for institutional use, some doors, doorways, cornices etc. remain.

Reason for designation

An early-to-mid C19 small country house, retaining some good Jacobethan interiors, particularly the spectacular former drawing room. Good stained glass in the chapel. In the staircase window, important stained glass from one of the key Gothic revival churches.