Greenways and The Mews, including forecourt walls and gate piers

Cadw's description

Location

Facing The Park, and entered from a private drive adjacent to HSBC Bank, High Street. The Mews is entered from the rear in Bank Place.

History

Built in the 2nd quarter of the C19 and shown on the 1842 Tithe map facing the town park. It was one of 2 houses that were probably part of a larger unrealised scheme to build terraced houses around the park.

Exterior

A late Georgian 3-bay house of 2 storeys with basement. The front is scribed roughcast painted white. The roof is slate on wide bracketed eaves, with end stone stacks. The entrance, reached up steps to a veranda, has a replacement glazed door under an original radial-glazed overlight. Windows are tall 20-pane hornless sashes in the lower storey, and are directly above basement lightwells. The veranda stands on wooden posts, has Tudor arches with diamond latticework to the spandrels, and plastered segmental tunnel vault. The original balustrade has been taken town. In the upper storey are 16-pane hornless sash windows under hood moulds. In the rubble-stone R gable end (originally intended to be a dividing wall with the next house) is an external stack.

The forecourt has coursed rubble-stone walls with slate copings. On the L side the wall is stepped down from the house, and on the R side swept down. The wall at the front has monolithic gate piers, with later gate, leading to a slate-paved path and steps up to the entrance.

At the rear is a 2-storey wing on the R side, with lower 2-storey former coach house (The Mews). The main range has 12-pane hornless sash windows in the upper storey, a 20-pane sash window to the L in the lower storey and a boarded door and 4-pane sash window to the basement. The wing retains a single 12-pane sash window in the upper storey and a replaced and inserted window on the R side, all above a recently added 1-storey link to a formerly detached stable. The coach house has 2 former wide doorways, infilled with a wide window and French doors. The upper storey has an enlarged window on the R side and replacement window to the L. The gable end facing Bank Place has a blocked window.

The former lofted stable has a replacement door and window, and a boarded loft door above. It is attached to the main house by a yard wall, with boarded door, abutting the rear L corner of the house.

Interior

The central entrance hall has a plaster cornice with egg-and-dart and bead-and-reel friezes, leading through an elliptical arch to the stairs, which are placed on the L side and are top-lit by a skylight. The open-well staircase has a wreathed handrail and scrolled tread ends. Main rooms have panelled shutters. The well-preserved basement retains many original features of slate, including steps, flagstones, shelves and dairy slabs.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as one of a pair of fine and well-preserved early C19 town houses retaining good late-Georgian character and some fine detail.