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Penpont Manor House, Trallong

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NPRN16026
Map ReferenceSN92NE
Grid ReferenceSN9716128747
Unitary (Local) AuthorityPowys
Old CountyBrecknockshire
CommunityTrallong
Type Of SiteMANOR HOUSE
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
1. Built by Daniel Williams in 1666 and re-fronted in 1815. 3 storeys. 5 sach widows with moulded architraves and entablatures. Greek Doric portico along the entire front of the mansion comprising 22 grouped columns, with a shaped parapet. Front door has a large fanlight. Interior contains fine staircase of 1666. Tapestry room, containing contemporary panelling, unaltered since 1666. Back wing was originally a Tudor farmhouse. Seat of Boleyn - Williams - Murray family.
RA Jones 20 Oct 2000

2. Penpont is situated just south of the River Usk and north of the A40, 6km west of Brecon. It is a large, ashlar three storey county house, late 17th century in origin, with successive modifications. The original house was built by Daniel Williams c.1666, replacing Abercamlais-isaf. This earlier house may survive as the rear service wing. Williams' house was a double pile house of five bays, roughly square in plan, with two storeys and dormer attics, and a facade with a central Renaissance-classical entrance doorway. Another branch of the family built Abercamlais House, which is just west along the river from Penpont [NPRN 25005]. A pair of large houses being so close is exceptional in the country, given their outbuildings and bridges and they have similar date and plan type. Penpont was remodeled in 1802 for Penry Williams by Charles Wallis of Bristol, producing the current 3-storey neo-classical house, highlighted by string-courses and a classical porch. The building was refaced in Bath stone with Palladian details by Henry Underwood, with a new colonnade added to conceal the extensions at the front, a new conservatory added, together with alterations to the rear courtyard range c.1830. The first-floor windows have entablatures and the centre one has brackets. This upper part of the building is 5-bays wide, with the portico beneath extending to seven to mask the lengthening of the main rooms. The Colonnade is Tuscan style with centre bay breaking forward further than the end bays, carrying the paneled parapet with it. At the angles, the columns are coupled. The stairs of the 1666 house survive at the end of a hall corridor in a two-storey well, and have balusters with two twists at the bottom, then vase shapes with slanted top mouldings. The newels have arch and key-stone panels and ball-finials. Upstairs there is a room with flat late 17th century panelling and tapestries of the Queen of Sheba. The dining room and drawing room were remodeled alike with Ionic columns forming screens, panelled plaster ceilings of 17th century type, with laurel and garden decorations. In the drawing room there is an open pedimented doorway on late 17th century patterns. The contents of the house were sold in 1992.
(Sources: NMR Site files, AJ Parkinson, 25 May 1995; R Haslam, The Buildings of Wales: Powys, 1979, pp. 367-8; CADW listed buildings database, 25 September 1951; Brycheiniog 1968-9, Jones and Smith, 'The Houses of Breconshire', pp. 23-30).
Ian Archer, RCAHMW, 3rd March 2005