History

In 1761 Wern was the property of William Wynn and was morgaged to Sir George Warren in 1771. In 1811 it was purchased by James Huddart and attached to the Brynkir estate. In 1892 John Douglas, architect of Chester, completely remodelled the then existing country house for the engineer R M Greaves who ran the family slate quarries at Blaenau Ffestiniog (Llechwedd) and was uncle to Sir Clough Williams Ellis, the architect and creator of Portmeirion. Further additions are said to have been made in 1910. It was used as a hospital during the 1st World War and is now a home for the elderly. The grounds are an early example of the work of Thomas Mawson, the internationally known and most prolific garden designer of his day.

Exterior

Jacobethan style 2-storey and attic country house built of snecked local rubble stone with buff sandstone dressings; slate roofs with mostly stone chimney stacks and some rooflights. Ovolo-moulded, mullion and transom windows throughout with leaded glazing. The main front is to south and is deliberately asymmetrical; the design includes a shaped gable over the end of the main entrance hall, flanked by a deep, 3-window, bow to the right and an intricately detailed porch to left which projects forward from the shaped gable of the hall range. The gabled bay has finials and 5-light window to ground floor with cornice, the first floor above being jettied on brackets. The swept roof bow has 2- and 3-light windows and the masonry appears older indicating retention of earlier fabric in this wing. The porch has a round-arched entrance and its rich Jacobethan detail includes a parapet with obelisks on bracket plinths and divided by semicircular crenels; rosettes to the frieze and strapwork-derived carving to the paired pilasters; the parapet is inscribed RMG and ANNO DOMINI MDCCCXCII. The Saloon range on the left has strapwork pierced parapet with ball finials and large squared bay with twinned 3-light, double-transomed windows; this range adjoins the gable end of the south range of the service courtyard.

The long E front has a lateral chimney breast and freestone stack. The gabled right hand side has two projecting gabled bays towards front and another to extreme end at rear. The 3-window left hand bay lighting the staircase has been added in the remodelling; it is broader and deeper with ogee-headed top lights below an attic roundel and has side doorway dated 1892; downpipe dated 1894 to right. The next gabled bay, which is 1-window, is original below the gable - see the massive quoins; the masonry changes at this point again define the extent of the pre-existing house. The wing steps down beyond and ends with another 1-window gabled bay, including tripartite ground-floor window. Gabled rear, stepping in and out with projecting cross ranges and lean-tos; open yard to right (west) facing service courtyard. One central gable has paired 16-pane sashes; cast-iron-bracketed and glazed hood to side entrance. Narrower gable to right containing secondary staircase and added squared bay to next gable, retaining leaded and coloured glazing to the lower panes on both floors. The rear is completed by a snecked rubble projecting gable with 3-light window lighting the Saloon. Stepped down from that and closing the south side of the service courtyard is a 2-storey, 5-window rubble range of staff accommodation with 4-pane horned sashes and one round-arched doorway; similar glazing to south side. The lean-tos and attached outbuildings, some with hipped roofs, link with boundary walls that divide the house from the service courtyard; includes crow-stepped and arched gateways and retains well-preserved pyramidal roofed game-larder to left (east) which is tiled internally.

Interior

The entrance leads to an inner porch with mosaic floor, pitch-pine panelling and round-arched doorways. A right-angled turn leads into the long hall set at right angles to the front, and which has a simple rectangular ribbed ceiling, oak floor and Delft tiled fireplace with polygonal columns and bracketed mantelpiece. To left is the Saloon, a large and tall room wainscotted up to nearly 2m and lit by a broad bay window to the front; it has a grand Jacobethan chimneypiece with 5-arched overmantel; this room formerly had an organ and now has a modern suspended ceiling. To right of the hall is the former drawing room, now the dining room, with bow window to front. This room has a Jacobethan ribbed ceiling with a more Rococo-like coved cornice and wall-panelling in C18 manner including some Adamesque detail; the light switches have been delicately concealed within small mirrored wall-boxes in a similar C18 style. Ornate over-door panels and tapered columns to the chimneypiece; fluted columns to bow and to side window. The staircase hall can be reached from both the main hall and the previous room. Jacobethan open well staircase with turned balusters and facetted string; 3-arched screen to 1st floor landing. Amongst the other ground floor rooms is the former Estate Office, behind the Saloon, which has carved wooden door panels to fireplace cupboard. The back stairs has further Arts and Crafts detail including fluted string and trefoil/quatrefoil pierced balustrade. The dining room has been divided into two but retains Jacobethan Ionic fireplace; this room and others along this wall have deep, boxed, window 'sills' which houses the hydraulic railway that took food from the kitchen to the dining room. 1st floor retains arched openings, original doors etc.

Because Mr Greaves was a keen inventor of gadgets the house was equipped with a remarkable range of mechanical devices such as the previously mentioned railway, a complex fire extinguisher situated in the passage behind the hall, a chemical refrigerator in the cellars, a 'hot-man' coat-drier made of copper and closets flushed by hot water in winter, etc.; only the railway and fire extinguisher remain. In the grounds there was also a private railway siding for delivery of coal and the drive gates were mechanically operated from the lodge.

Reasons for Listing

Listed Grade II* for its special interest as a well-preserved Victorian country house in a fine contemporary garden layout, and designed by a notable architect, retaining good interiors.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q17744129

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

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)