History

Gwaenynog originated as a late medieval house of the important Myddleton family and had become the seat of the senior branch by the C16. David Myddleton was Receiver for North Wales under Edward IV and Richard III and his son Roger is likely to have been responsible for original, early Tudor house. This was a timber-framed hall house, apparently with parlour cross-wing, and during the C16 no doubt evolved into the H-plan which forms the core of the present building; the timber-framing of this primary section of the house apparently remained visible until alterations were carried out c1870. An ex-situ date of 1571 probably originated as part of a carved post-and-panel screen (in the Clwyd fashion) and may provide a dating context for the insertion of a ceiling over of the open hall, together with the provision of a central stack, thereby creating a lobby-entry plan. Various Elizabethan inlaid panels of bog oak and holly have survived (now incorporated into a late C19 overmantel), which are probably contemporary with this phase.

The house was remodelled c1762-4 by Colonel John Myddleton who provided excellent Rococo plasterwork, and again c1777-84 when good marble chimneypieces and Adamesque plasterwork were given to the newly formed Drawing and Dining rooms; a painted door to the 'Evidence Room' with a pastoral scene is dated 1784. During the 1770s both Thomas Pennant, the noted antiquary and traveller, and Samuel Johnson, the famous moralist and man of letters, stayed at Gwaenynog as guests of Colonel Myddleton. Johnson visited in 1774 in company with Mrs Thrale (later Piozzi) and to commemorate this visit, Myddleton erected a monument on the banks of the river Ystrad.

The house was acquired by the Burton family c1870 who remodelled the house, encasing the timber-framed core in limestone and Gothicising the main garden elevation. Further alterations were carried out c1914. During a visit in May 1895, Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) gained inspiration for her famous Flopsy Bunnies story, using the walled garden and gardener's cottage as its setting.

Exterior

Extensive 2-storey country house of complex and irregular plan. The primary hall- house was extended to the W in the mid C18 at which period the S, park-facing elevation became the principal front. The whole was Gothicised in a Victorian encasing and various additions were made to the N and NW both then and in the early C20. Of limestone construction partly encapsulating a timber-framed, E-shaped core; slate roofs and plain end and central chimneys. The entrance front is to the E and contains the primary house. This has a storeyed and gabled porch with flanking 4-light wooden mullioned windows and advanced wings beyond, partly enclosing a medium-sized entrance court; plain late C19 sashes throughout. The porch has a rendered upper stage with 3-light window; C19 Tudor-arched entrance with panelled doors. Three-window R return with modern multi-pane French doors to the gable end. The L return has a re-used lead hopper to a C19 downpipe with the date 1764 and the initials I.M (for Colonel John Myddleton).

This left-hand advanced wing was probably originally a parlour wing and was converted into a full-height dining room in the C18. A balancing drawing room was placed on the other side of the stairwell thereby creating a new lengthened garden elevation to the S. This is near-symmetrical and has large, full-height canted bay windows to each end flanking a middle section with central gabled stairwell bay. The canted bays have plain-glazed cross-windows with arched lights and returned labels; crenellated stone parapets. The 2-storey central section has a pierced quatrefoil parapet, with 2 cross-windows to the L and a single cross-window to the R of the central bay; two 2-light windows each to the upper floor with early C20 blind boxes. The central bay has an entrance to the L with linenfold panelled garden door having pierced tracery upper lights. Above this is a large 4-light transmullioned stairlight with corbelled sill; this replaces an C18 Venetian window known to have occupied this position. In the gable apex is an heraldic cartouche within a moulded panel. On the L gable end is stone plaque with, in raised figures and letters:` I M M 1777 Restored 1882 O& AB; blind flanking cross-loops.

A long, mostly C19 N range extends as a parallel wing behind the S front, with a sunk topiary garden in between. This wing has paired sashes in shallow corbelled oriels to the upper floor with blind boxes as before. Arched-light cross-windows to the ground floor, one altered to form a modern multi-pane French window and to the R a large C20 bow window. This wing returns to the N to form a further, contemporary Z-plan range with similar windows and plain gables. The N side faces a large, irregular service court with walled garden divided off to the L, behind a C-shaped section with projecting gabled wings (that to the R, containing the 'Evidence Room', of brick). Three entrances to the central section, that to the middle with bracketed and gabled canopy, with decorative bargeboards and finial; boarded doors. That to the R faces E and is in the centre of a further projecting wing which has a storeyed extruded bay in its angle with the main range; single sashes and some small-pane casement windows, one, to the ground floor of the extruded bay, with arched head; bracketed canopy porch to the latter entrance.

Projecting northwards to the far R is a long, 6-bay, single-storey service block with 16-pane unhorned sashes and a C20 part-glazed entrance to the 4th bay. This returns to the E in a one-and-a-half-storey former coachhouse block. This has 2 C20 boarded garage doors with flanking boarded entrances and 3 12-pane sashes to the upper floor, breaking the eaves and contained within gabled dormers; pierced bargeboards and geometric finials. Deep verges with finial to the E gable.

Adjoining the NW wing (the right-hand advanced, L-shaped wing on the entrance front) is a high rubble wall which extends northwards for some 15m at a height of up to 3.5m. This has a 4-bay lean-to cart-house addition to its rear and has a wide, chamfered Tudor arch spanning the drive which leads around to the rear service court. The arch is late C19 and is surmounted by a crenellated parapet; further pedestrian arch to its L. The wall continues to the R for a short distance before terminating.

Interior

Hall (in the primary range) with ceiling framed in 3 ways, with moulded plasterwork including Rococo foliate groups. Good 1760s fireplace with consoles flanking a classical frieze with the motto 'Duw a Digon..' painted onto the projecting central section; moulded cornice. Above the fireplace is a fine trophy group in relief plasterwork with canons, swords and other militaria flanking a central cartouche with the Myddleton arms. 1870s inner fireplace of limestone, with Flamboyant-style Gothic basket arch having cotton plant relief carving; brass repose panels within. Leading off from the hall is a panelled sitting room with re-sited first-half C17 small-field oak panelling (painted). Three C18 segmental arches and a C19 Tudor-style limestone fireplace; this has an overmantel made up out of re-used Elizabethan panels, having fine foliate, geometric and heraldic inlay of bog oak and holly.

The Former Dining Room (now the Billiard Room) has a high ceiling with very fine Rococo plasterwork, with complex foliate cornice and leaf-scroll frieze (modern gilding); large-field panelled dado. Contemporary fireplace of white figured marble with black marble Ionic columns and yellow figured marble frieze; moulded cornice.

The former Drawing Room (Music Room) has a very fine Adam-style plaster ceiling with reliefs of female Muses in medallions and a dentilated cornice. Adam fireplace of white and yellow-brown figured marble, with relief plaque to the centre of the frieze depicting a horn and lyre with sheet music contained within a swag; contemporary steel and brass grate. Additional Adam-style plasterwork below the frieze; post 1914 by Waring & Gillow. Lugged and moulded architraves with fine 6-panel mahogany doors to the principal rooms.

The narrow well staircase, off the hall, is a particularly fine example of the 1760s; of oak with beech (?) rail. This has fine fluted balusters, a moulded and swept rail, Ionic fluted columnar newels and pierced, foliate tread-ends. Lugged plaster frames to the walls with coved ceiling to the stairwell with modillion cornice; Rococo plasterwork centrepiece. At the first floor the stair rail curves around to form a balustraded gallery landing. The ceiling heights to this floor are mostly low and moulded plaster beams in some rooms are suggestive of the Tudor structure. In a first-floor former sitting room however is a high coved ceiling with exceptionally-fine Rococo plasterwork, having stalks and foliate forms cut in the round; moulded egg-and-dart cornice and lugged architraves with 6-panel doors. In another first-floor chamber is an C18 stone fireplace with primitive relief-carved hand motif, together with contemporary plasterwork cornicing and a 2-panel fielded door. Beyond this is a monument room, called the 'Evidence Room'. This has a heavy full-height safe door with painted pastoral scene including a Muse figure with an urn, and has the date 1784 together with room's name painted upon it in contemporary hand; the room itself has a brick vault.

The kitchen has 2 wide segmental fireplace arches, one with central keystone inscribed with the date 1762. On one wall is a large, contemporary, built-in tripartite dresser with fielded oak panels. In a room off the kitchen is an ex-situ date plaque of 1571. The 4-bay arched-braced collar trusses of the former open hall are partly visible in the attics and are (unusually) double-pegged. Over the Dining Room is a 2-bay arched-braced collar truss roof with raking struts above the collar and chamfered braces. It is possible that this was originally the open roof of the first-floor solar of the primary hall house.

Reasons for Listing

Listed Grade II* for its special interest as the late medieval and sub-medieval former seat of the Myddleton family with particularly fine mid and third-quarter C18 interior detail and associations with Dr Johnson and Beatrix Potter.

Group value with other listed items at Gwaenynog.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Gwaenynog at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17741199

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record