Lamphey Court

Cadw's description

Location

To the N of Lamphey Village.

Exterior

History: Built in 1823 by Charles Delamotte Mathias, whose family were wealthy tea plantation owners in Jamaica, immediately following his purchase of the Lamphey Estate. (The date 1823 has also recently been found marked on a roof-timber.) A two-storey Greek revival house facing S over a park landscape, with return wings to the rear. The name of the architect is not recorded, but the suggestion is made that it was William Owen jnr. of Haverfordwest. The house remained in the Mathias family until sold by Wing Commander Mathias in 1978. In 1980 Lamphey Court was re-opened by the present owners as a hotel following restorations and extensions.

Exterior: Main elevation of seven windows with full-height tetrastyle portico. Parapets recently restored. Textured render coloured warm-white with contrasting darker colours on cornice, frieze and plinth. [A recently added wing at the W is in similar style.] The portico coloumns are one space advanced and the wall at the rear of the portico is recessed. Ionic order with unfluted columns. Plain pediment. The cornice, frieze and the cyma of the architrave are continued out onto the parapets of the flanking elevations. Central intercolumniation widened. Unfluted antae. Flight of five full-width steps at front between stylobate blocks. The wall at the rear of the porch has been painted yellow for contrast and emphasis. Central double-doors to entrance hall with stained glass over-light, with architrave moulding and a cornice on consoles. Blank fenestration panel above.

The fenestration within the portico, in the flanks of the façade and in the return elevations at E and W consists of recessed-frame hornless-sash windows with thin glazing bars. The upper storey windows are square with sashes of four and eight panes, the lower storey windows generally are of double-square proportion with sashes of six and nine panes. The lower storey windows of the E elevation (dining room) are wider and tripartite with mullions and narrow side-sashes of two and three panes. Hipped low-pitch slated roofs behind parapet.

Interior: Hall with open-string staircase at rear. Regency style wrought-iron balustrade with swept mahogany handrail. Rosewood double-doors to main reception rooms, six-panelled leaves. White-painted panelled doorlinings with Regency-style architraves. Restrained ornament to ceiling perimeter plasterwork.

The original house including its two wings extending N is listed Grade II* as an important Greek revival house of high architectural quality.

.
References: Information from Mr Thomas Lloyd.
Mathias Papers, Haverfordwest R O.
Western Telegraph 'Then and Now' no. 230. 4.7.1984.
Dyfed Arch. Trust S&M PRN 6650