Site Record

A house built in 1632 to an unusual design by the then High Sheriff of Merioneth, who referred to it as his summer house. The house is square in plan and has a pyramidal slate roof rising to a central cluster of four chimney stacks. Originally with close studded timber frame construction, the house was refaced in stone rubble and refenestrated in about 1850. A depiction of 1805 shows the original form of the building. It was bought by the local authority in 1920 and divided into two residences for war veterans.
This was a two storey building with a cellar and attics once lit by two tiers of long dormer windows. The internal plan is based around a grid of nine generally square units on each floor, the central stack taking up the central unit. There was a central doorway in the western facade, opening onto an entrance hall with long, double unit reception rooms to either side. The hall and southern reception room retain good seventeenth century panelling. The original dog leg staircase remains in the south-west corner unit.
Three other houses were built to similar plans in Wales in this period. These are: Edwinsford in Carmarthenshire (NPRN 249); Ty-Mawr, Llansilin in Denbighshire (NPRN 35462); Trimley Hall in Flintshire (NPRN 36275).

Sources: Smith 'Houses of the Welsh Countryside' (1975), 232-3, fig 131
CADW Listed Buildings Database (7597, 83044)

John Wiles 05.10.07