History

Brynbella was designed by Clement Mead, Surveyor, for Hester Lynch Piozzi, and the design was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794. The house was built from 1792 to 1795 at a cost of £20,000. Minor later corner additions on the east side. If the nearby Bach-y-graig was demolished for material for Brynbella the latter may incorporate bricks which are among the oldest instance of the material in Wales.

The side units of the house were raised in height in the mid-C19, and the side unit to the south was enlarged forwards on the east side in 1902.

Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821) was born Hester Lynch Salusbury the heiress to the Bachygraig estate. Her first husband was the brewer and MP Henry Thrale (1724-1781), who she supported in political campaigning and managing their large brewery business, which she sold after his death. She was a famous author, a member of the Blue Stocking society for female intellectuals, and a close friend of Samuel Johnson about whom she wrote a best-selling biography. Her other publications included poetry, travel writing, history, linguistics and politics. She travelled widely in Europe following her second marriage to the Italian singer Gabriele Piozzi in 1784, before returning to Wales to live at Brynbella, named to reflect her love of Wales and Italy.

Exterior

Brynbella is built on a slope so that the house is of two storeys on the east approach side and of three storeys on the west garden side, the latter presenting a central piano nobile over a service basement. The house is partly in ashlar stonework, partly rendered, with shallow-pitched slated roofs and stone chimneys.

The main (west) front is that to the garden, in ashlar stonework. The elevation is symmetrical in three units. The central unit consists of two broad, segmental three-window bays with a single window between; it has a plat band at the raised ground level and at the first floor level and a flat frieze decorated at intervals with roundels, surmounted by a modillion cornice and small blocking course. The ground storey is rusticated but the basement and upper storey are in plain masonry. At centre is a broad staircase in two flights, guarded by iron handrails, leading to a Tuscan porch with tall columns in two pairs, a simple architrave, paired-modillion cornice and an iron balcony handrail. The window above is a French window opening on to this small balcony. The windows of the raised ground storey are of hornless sash type, with 18 panes defined by very thin glazing bars. They have rusticated flat arch heads and they stand on the plat band which serves as a continuous sill. The reveals are stuccoed and painted white and the heads have drop-sided draught screens. The windows of the upper storey are similar but of 12 panes, and without any differentiation of the stonework at the heads. They have shallow separate sills. In the basement storey there is a single tripartite sash window in each bay, that at right adapted to serve as a French window.

Each of the outer units is a five-window range, symmetrical in itself, with the central three slightly advancing and carrying a pediment with a circular sinking. A chimney rises above the centre of each pediment. The piano nobile of the central unit is not continued into the outer units, where the basement and two storeys are of similar height and the windows of all storeys are of the same proportion. There are ground and first-floor level plat bands, and a cornice similar to that of the central unit but without the frieze. In each outer unit there are five 12-pane windows in the top storey, two alternating with niches in the ground storey, and four windows plus one blank panel in the basement. Some basement windows, and one ground floor window, are painted shams.

The east (approach) elevation, the side elevations at north and south, and the returns of the central unit where it is visible over the roofs of the side units are all rendered and painted cream. The central unit at east is a five window range, with a plinth and a plat-band. Modillion cornice in ashlar as on the garden elevation. 12-pane sash-windows, that at centre tripartite with a shallow arched head. At centre is a Tuscan porch in red sandstone with thin columns flush to the wall, an architrave/frieze with raised roundels and a cornice with shallow paired modillions. Six-panel doors with semi-glazed side lights beneath a transom, above which is a full-size decorative batswing fanlight and plain stone surround. The side units of the house at north and south have been altered. Both have been heightened by one storey. That at south has also been brought forward on the approach side to the line of the central unit; two-storey, five window, door with pilasters, caps and cornice; the date 1902 on the rainwater head. The unit at north retains an original railed service area on the approach side with a low surrounding wall. Overlooking this at the end of the central unit is a tall arched staircase light, also three sash windows and two small circular lights in a return of the north unit.

Interior

The plan incorporates an entrance lobby on the approach side linked to a small room said to have been intended for a breakfast room on the garden side. The principal rooms are those corresponding to the bays on the garden side, the dining room (originally drawing room) to the south and the present drawing room to the north.

The design of the interiors has been attributed to Michaelangelo Pergolesi, but this has been challenged. There is bold plasterwork ornament and the original pier glasses survive in the two main reception rooms. The fireplaces were designed by Mead and made by Bromfield of Liverpool. Stone staircase to the north of the approach side entrance lobby with simple but very delicate ironwork.

There is said to be a recess upstairs for Piozzi's chamber organ, with a chimneypiece featuring musical instrument decoration.

Reasons for Listing

Listed as a leading house of the late Georgian period and for its close historical association with Hester Lynch Piozzi.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Brynbella at Wikipedia
• Brynbella official website
• Wikidata Q4980930

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

• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
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  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)