Bettisfield Park, including attached garden walls, Hanmer, Wrexham

History

The former seat of the Hanmer family and a house of at least C16 origin. It was depicted by Moses Griffith in the C18, with a symmetrical S front. The E front was similar, and addition of ranges on the W side suggest it already had a courtyard plan before major extension in the late C18 and early C19. A new S front was built in the late C18, incorporating part of the C16 house. The new work was probably by Samuel Wyatt of London as it shows some of his signature motifs. In the mid C19 there were further additions on the E side, including an Italianate tower of the 1840s and a Tudor-style tower with French pavilion roof, plus additions to the NW. Demolition of parts of the house began after 1945, mainly comprising the mid C19 additions and the C16 portion of the E front. In 1989 it was sold by the Hanmer family and in 1989-93 the C18 part of the house was restored by Cornelia Bayley.

Exterior

The surviving portion of Bettisfield Park is a substantial Georgian country house of 2 storeys and basement, of scribed render over an ashlar plinth, hipped slate roofs behind low parapets on moulded cornices, and brick stacks. Of roughly L-plan, it has a S-facing entrance range and W-facing rear wing, with courtyard at the rear. The 6-bay entrance front is asymmetrical. To the R side are 3 equal bays incorporating a central entrance. To the L of centre is a wide full-height bow with domed roof, with 2 equal bays further L. The entrance has a Doric portico reached up stone steps between panelled piers. The portico has square outer columns, fluted inner columns, entablature with triglyph frieze and pediment with re-introduced coat of arms. The entrance, in a moulded architrave, has half-glazed panel doors with margin glazing, and overlights with similar detail. Floor-length windows in the lower storey are in arched recesses with panelled aprons in the plinth, stone entablatures with guttae over notional pilasters, and roundels in the tympana. Bays flanking the entrance have 15-pane hornless sashes, but the other bays have replacement cross windows. In the upper storey, where there is a continuous sill band, are 9-pane hornless sashes.

The 4-bay asymmetrical L (W) garden front incorporates a wide full-height bow on the R side, which is the end of the entrance range, and a rear wing with balancing advanced bay to the L end under a hipped roof. The bow and narrower central bays have cross windows in the lower storey similar to the front elevation, and the L-hand bay has a tripartite 15-pane sash window in a similar but wider opening. The bay L of centre has added steps. The upper storey has 9-pane sashes and sill band similar to the front.

The 3-bay R side wall of the main range, restored after C19 additions were taken down, has 9-pane sash windows and sill band in the upper storey. At the rear of the house the ground is lower and the building is entered at basement level. A hipped projection on the L side was rebuilt after the attached C16 and C19 parts of the building were demolished. It incorporates a large segmental-headed stair window. Set back in the centre is a panel door to the basement offset to the L, R of which are sash windows, 6-pane in the basement, 12-pane in the lower storey and 9-pane in the upper storey. On the R side the rear wing has upper-storey and basement sash windows in the side wall. In the end wall, also rebuilt after sections of the house were taken down, two 9-pane sash windows flank a blind window in the upper storey, and the basement has similar windows. Set back to the L is a basement door, 15-pane sash window in the lower storey and 9-pane window above.

Attached to the NW end of the rear wing is an L-shaped garden wall, which also retains the lower courtyard behind the house, mainly of brick with stone coping, the return section of which has a pointed doorway. Next to the house the wall incorporates an ashlar projection with 2 round-headed niches and panel to the centre. This was originally the plinth of a NW wing.

Interior

The house has a sumptuous neo-classical interior well-restored. The entrance hall has a screen with 2 scagliola columns (Erechtheion Ionic), and a cornice incorporating swags and aegricania. On the L side is a marble fireplace with overmantel, and fluted pilasters. Behind the screen is the open-well stair, which has slender brass balusters, fret-cut tread ends and wreathed handrail. The room to the R of the entrance, which has panelling that may conceal early cross beams and is remodelled from the C16 house, has a neo-classical fireplace. From the entrance hall an L-shaped corridor leads off to the L, which has a plaster barrel ceiling with roundels and a cornice similar to the entrance hall. The morning room is the first room. It has a white marble Adam-style fireplace with maidens in relief, and its plaster ceiling has a painted roundel to the centre in Italian Renaissance style. It also has richly detailed doorcases incorporating entablature with foliage and vase, and panel doors. The large drawing room is at the L end of the entrance range. Its plaster ceiling incorporates a central oval with roundels in the corner, painted with Italian Renaissance scenes, and a plaster sphinx in relief. The room has 2 pedimented doorcases with fielded-panel doors.

The dining room is behind the drawing room, in the rear wing. It has a screen of 2 Corinthian scagliola columns (based on the Tower of the Winds). The rich plaster panel ceiling incorporates an anthemion cornice and, in a central panel, the 'Slaughter of the Innocents' painted in a Dutch Renaissance manner. Behind the dining room was a library, now converted to a kitchen.

Reasons for Listing

The surviving portion of Bettisfield Park is listed grade II* as a substantial and well restored C18 country house, which is especially notable for its fine interior detail.

External Links

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.