Treberfydd (also known as Treberfedd), Llangors, Powys

History

Preceding the present building and occupying the same site was a house called Treberfedd Villa on Tithe Map 1840, 'the house, garden and plantation' owned by Henry Joseph Cooper. Estate was bought by Robert Raikes in 1848. He came from a family of successful merchants and bankers in Hull and was influenced by the Oxford movement at University. He came to Wales with his wife and members of her family with the intention of establishing a centre of Tractarian worship as a counter influence to Non-Conformism and to re-energize the established church. Thus rebuilding the church of Llangasty and providing a schoolroom adjacent was his first task, for which he employed John Loughborough Pearson, whom he already knew in Yorkshire. Subsequently they began replanning and rebuilding the house in late 1840s; 1851 census shows family and domestic staff in residence. Nearby quarry provided most of the stone, the Bathstone probably imported via the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal. Treberfydd was Pearson's first major commission. Raikes and Pearson remained life-long friends and Pearson provided the extension to school some 40 year later. Robert Raikes played an active role locally and in the County and acted as High Sheriff in 1851 and an officer of Volunteers. Financial difficulties following failure of the bank led Treberfydd to be let and him to become agent of Glanusk estate. The Raikes family still own Treberfydd. The house is set in gardens designed by W A Nesfield, a leading garden designer of the day. Separately listed is the attached stable courtyard designed by Pearson, evidence of Raikes great affection for horses.

Exterior

A mansion in Tudor Revival style. Asymmetrical L-shaped plan incorporating the core of the earlier house in the large centre hall; entrance centre left with main reception rooms left facing SE, with single storey conservatory; large service range to right. Built of coursed sandstone rubble with Bathstone dressings; roof of plain and fishscale tiles with terracotta ridge. A multitude of tall stacks, most paired, of varying design, some octagonal, some square, and of these some angled, all with decorative cresting and terracotta pots, most embattled, some with a raised band, most set astride ridge. Copings are wide and raised and gables topped by large finials. All windows are cross frame, some with moulded surrounds, most with deep hoodmoulds with decorative stops; proportions between top and lower sections differ; metal frames and quarries with decorative leading in different patterns.

Frontage facing lake has 5 main bays all projecting at different levels. Centre left is a 3 storey projecting entrance tower; it is embattled, topped by a tall chimney, with heavily moulded string course below incorporating large exuberantly carved gargoyles; cross windows on 3 sides to top floor - 3 lights to front - with moulded string course below; a further string acts as a cornice to the first floor windows, again on 3 sides of the bay with paired double lights to front; ground floor has moulded pointed arched doorway in square headed surround with intricately carved spandrels and rises to enclose a carved stone coat of arms; hoodmould continuous with side windows. Left bay has cross gable and 2 small rectangular lights to attic; first floor has oriel window with conical roof and enriched embattled parapet, the heavily moulded base supported on a deep pilaster; at ground level on either side are deep cross windows above a battered plinth. To right of entrance tower a more deeply recessed and lower cross gable with 3 light windows to first floor above a large canted ground floor bay with moulded embattled parapet topped by finials and large windows on all 3 sides. To right a wide cross gable breaks forward with similar windows on 3 floors, smaller to ground floor reflecting status as servants wing. End right is the side of the service range facing stable courtyard and is dominated by a corbelled stepped external stack with offsets. Extending to left is stepped wall with moulded saddleback coping and decorative garden entrance with heavily moulded Tudor -arched doorway with hood with stops, flanked by buttresses with offsets; above is a crow-stepped gable incorporating a blank shield with finials; iron and wood gate with linenfold panelling and fleur de lys stanchions, deep hinges.

Garden frontage has a range of 6 very varied bays, 5 cross gabled. Right is dominated by wide double external stack part corbelled at first floor level; attached at ground floor is a single storey conservatory 5 bays long 2 bays wide, with deep cross windows, parapet with moulded cornices and matching string below, Tudor-arched doorway, and a set back low pitched glazed roof. At centre a double bay with double gables of unequal height breaks forward; on first floor at slightly different levels and separated by a downpipe with decorative spout are two 3 light cross windows; ground floor left has a wide embattled bay; to right the wall is broached to form a light at an angle of 45 degrees. Small cross gable right with similar windows to first and ground floor. All ground floor windows of these 3 bays are to plinth level with steps outside, allowing somewhat awkward garden access. To left of central double gable is a recessed cross gable high and wide with similar windows on each floor. End left is a polygonal tower, deeply and decoratively embattled and incorporating a chimney; string course below and similar windows to 2 sides of first floor, broached to a rectangular plan at ground floor with chamfered Tudor-arched doorway; small rectangular lights to ground floor and plinth.

Rear elevation is L shaped, the main house block projecting to right with the tower breaking forward from that and the 3 bay hall and service wing set back to left. Right bay has further external stacks, asymmetrically stepped with offsets, the right part corbelled and the one on the return corbelled at first floor level; adjacent at ground floor a Tudor-arched doorway with above a cross bay parallel with left wing, stained glass and armature in the window which looks onto a small building well. Of the left wing with 3 cross gabled bays, all with a 2 window range to the ground floor albeit assymterical, the wide right bay is recessed, the centre has wide stepped external stack separating windows, that to right angled as on garden frontage; small cross gable end left creates a half dormer.

Stable court frontage is dominated at ground floor level by a long flat coped wall with small openings for provisions eg coal into stores behind. This encloses a small courtyard with former cross gabled dairy wing left, kitchen wing right with large 4 flue stack; above the 2 cross-gabled wings, the right to kitchen the deeper, is a composition of gables and stacks.

Interior

Interior retains almost all its original fittings with some alterations, redecoration and additions mainly c 1900. Large intricately carved stone fireplaces some with inset coloured tiles, richly moulded panelled plaster ceilings and cornices, panelled shutters to windows, 8 panelled doors. Wide hall passage opens out into wide hall with hooded fireplace with lower ceiling over, possibly dictated by elements of original house; broad open well dark wood intricately carved staircase rises to landing with armorial stained glass in window. To left is the drawing room, redecorated since photo of 1860 showing dark ceiling and dark patterned wallpaper, now light and with addition of plaster frieze to coffered plaster ceiling; interconnecting drawing room to left, and to right library still lined with Robert Raikes' book collection, and billiard room. On the right of the hall is the dining room with arcaded passage and wood panelling and door to service quarters. These have white walls and dark wood and include a sitting room, offices, kitchen and a brick vaulted cellar, with access to rear service yard, storage rooms and dairy.

Reasons for Listing

Listed Grade I as an outstanding early Tudor Revival house, the earliest major work of a major Gothic revival architect J L Pearson, and representing the introduction of the style into this region of South Wales, with excellent detail inside and out, the interior retaining almost all its original fittings.
Group value with all other buildings at Treberfydd.

External Links

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