History

The history of the house at Carreglwyd is traceable to 1544, when William Griffiths, a descendant of the Griffiths family of Penrhyn and Rector of Llanfaethlu, purchased a house (then known as 'Ty'n y Pant') for the sum of £700. His grandson, the Chancellor William Griffiths, built the present house at the site in the 1634. His grandson in turn, another William Griffiths, added to the house in the late C17 and early C18. The estate was joined to those of the Trygarns of the Lleyn, and the Hollands of Plas Berw in 1755, when John Griffiths married Mary Trygarn - their initials can be seen on a lead cistern at the rear of the house dated 1763. The appearance of the present house and grounds owes much to remodelling in the late C18 and early C19, when the estate was owned by Holland Griffiths. It is thought, however, that it was his mother, Mary Trygarn, who was responsible for the extensive work carried out on the estate at that time. The estate passed from the childless Lady Maria Reade Griffiths, to her cousins, the Carpenter family, the fourth generation of which are current owners of the estate.
The oldest (C17) part of the building is at the left (SW) end of the present house. The interior was renovated in the 1980s.

Exterior

C17 to C18 gentry house, in simple Georgian style. 2- storeys with attics; house comprises main range and return wing housing principal rooms, with service accommodation in additional wings to rear. Built of local rubble masonry, with pebbledashed render to principal elevations. Slate roof and ridge tiles; tall rectangular ridge and gable stacks, with coupled square shafts to main range. The principal elevation overlooks the garden and lake and faces SE, a long 7-window range with 5 hipped dormers within the roof aligned between the main window bays. Sash windows throughout, mainly 12-pane, but with longer 15-pane windows to ground floor; horizontal sliding sashes to attic dormers. Central entrance in moulded wood architrave, with rectangular fanlight with radial glazing over panelled door. Return elevation to left (SW) comprises a similarly detailed 5-bay range.
At the NE end of, and set back from the principal elevation is a similarly detailed one bay addition; this has a hipped roof with hipped dormers to front and rear, the roof carried down as a catslide roof over a single storey addition to the NE, a later lean-to addition along the rear (NW) wall.
There are 2 other wings to the rear of the main house, 2-storey with hipped and half-hipped roofs, sash windows throughout. The elevations to the rear of the house unrendered, and there is a lead cistern against the rear wall of the house with the initials I M G and the date 1763.

Interior

The central entrance in the SE front opens against the main stack of the C17 hall; staircase at rear of hall, dining room to its right, and sitting room and library to left appear to date from the C18 remodelling of the house with contemporary detail, though the ground plan of the hall, its fireplace and ceiling plasterwork, are likely to be C17. Fine staircase with wreathed handrail and moulded risers returned at stringed moulded cornices. Good plaster work and joinery in other ground floor rooms including panelled doors, window shutters, reveals and soffits; fine fireplaces in dining room and sitting room.

Reasons for Listing

Listed II* as a fine small-scale country house of simple Georgian charcater externally, retaining good interior detail, notably an especially fine hall, the core of a C17 house retained through subsequent remodelling.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Carreglwyd at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17742044

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: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)