Description

MUCH DEWCHURCH CP -
SO 43 SE
6/86 Bryngwyn
- II
House, now flats and engineering workshops. 1868 with later alterations
and additions. By Frederick Kempson for Sir James Rankin. Coursed squared
sandstone with sandstone dressings. Timber-frame, Welsh slate roof and
brick stacks. Roughly rectangular plan aligned west-south-west/east-north-
east with former ballroom at west end and timber-framed extension and service
wing at east end of main central block. High Victorian Gothic style. Cellar
and three storeys. North elevation has main part with 2:2:1:2:1:3 windows,
two- and three- trefoil-headed lights under 2-centred heads with labels.
One gable to right of centre and one to right-hand side. Ground floor has
square headed windows with continuous hoodmoulds and foliated capitals.
Large three-bay port-cochere with 2-centred arches, columns with foliated
capitals and balustrade with trefoil-headed openings. Doorway within has
2-centred head, black and white marble shafts with waist-bands and foliated
capitals. Two-leaved multi-panelled door. To the left is service wing with
four gables, trefoil-headed windows and dogtooth frieze. Immediately to the
left of the main part is a late C19 timber-framed porch, the gable of which
has struts arranged herringbone fashion and the returns glazed trefoil-headed
panels. To the right is the single-storey former ballroom which has a canted
bay window with a central doorway flanked by shafts with foliated capitals.
The bay window has a parapet with trefoil motifs. Above is a Lombard frieze
decorated with trefoil-headed corbels. To the right of the ballroom is a
large gabled chapel-like annex obscured by a late C20 flat-roofed building.
South elevation has gable to left containing a blind wheel above two trefoil-
headed lancets. To its right are nine blind arches with 2-centred heads form-
ing the front of a former conservatory adjoining the ballroom. The main part
has five gables, the centre taller and slightly advanced containing three
trefoil-headed first floor windows above a small gabled and trefoil-headed
canopy supported by two brown marble shafts with foliated capitals over
entrance door. The extreme right is a timber-framed and sandstone late C19
extension with remains of oriel windows and close-studding which was ruinous
at time of re-survey (February 1986). Interior has extremely high four-flight
imperial staircase with trefoiled balustrading and carved finials, lit from
the north by an inward-facing first floor oriel. Several late C19 fireplaces.
Patterned oak floors to most of ground floor have squares with saltire crosses.
Oak panelling to ground floor room and staircase dado. Ballroom has deeply
coved ceiling and a range of 2-centred archways with polychromatic decoration,
sliding doors, which retract into jambs, between ballroom and conservatory.
Service wing has four-flight newel staircase with octagonal balusters.
Timber-framed extension, now ruinous has moulded ceiling beams. James Rankin
was born in Liverpool in 1842 and made his fortune in shipping and timber.
He was for many years MP for North Herefordshire and created Baronet in 1898.
Several philanthropical projects were instigated by him, including model
housing in Hereford City and Hereford City Library. The last was designed
by Kempson and opened in 1874. Rankin died in 1915. His monument is in
the Church of St David (qv). (BoE, p 259; and information within Bryngwyn).

Listing NGR: SO4876930265

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26391797

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.

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