History

Glyntaf is a remodelling after 1827, perhaps as late as 1846 of an earlier house called Pantybenne. That house survives as the E-W spine of the present house, its downhill gable end now set between added wings at right angles, and the whole rewindowed in a simple Gothic to Tudor style. The work was probably by John Philipps, carpenter, of Tavernspite, for the Protheroe family of Dolwilym, across the Taf, who bought the house in 1827 and had named it Glyntaf by 1831. The 1839 Tithe map shows a house roughly on the site, owned by W.S. Protheroe, occupied by David Thomas, with 194 acres. A specification of 1846 of 'the houses etc at Glyntaf' for valuation may relate to the rebuilding, there is a quote of £1,000 for the kitchen and dairy masonry, £300 for stables and coach house with servants accommodation over, and £100 for a cart-house. It was advertised to let in 1846 as a convenient cottage residence with entrance hall, three rooms and kitchen, cellar and offices on ground floor, six bedrooms, dressing room, water closet and store on first floor and servants room above. There were also 4-stall stables and a double coach-house. The Protheroes sold Dolwilym after a fire in 1908, but remained at Glyntaf into the later C20.
Photographs of the house before restoration show the garden front as roughcast with stucco hoodmoulds and raised stucco crosses on each wing.

Exterior

Country house, colourwashed rubble stone, formerly roughcast, with slate roofs and stone chimneys. Early C19 Gothic in overall character, mainly with wooden mullioned and transomed casement windows with Gothic glazing to top-lights.
Formal W front to valley incorporates end gable of previous house as centrepiece, with renewed scallopped bargeboard, 3-light first floor window, 1-3-1-light canted bay window below. Added wings have ground floor windows only, canted bay to right, 1-3-1 lights, and 3-light window to left. First floor window and ground floor left window have stone voussoirs, and formerly had hoodmoulds. There were formerly stucco equal-armed crosses to first floor of each wing and a blank loop in the main gable. Two stone ridge stacks.
S front has cross gables each side of altered C17 side wall. Gables have scalloped bargeboards, that to left has 3-light first floor window (formerly with hoodmould), over pointed window and doorway, both with intersecting tracery in heads, the doorway to right with half-glazed door. 1996 description mentions two doors here. There were marks of a tent-roofed veranda in the roughcast before removal. In angle to right, at junction with main block, is a narrow curved stair tower with two small pointed lights and top parapet. To right are 2 square projecting 2-storey stone bays rising up to beneath eaves. First bay has 3-light window with hoodmould over doorway in similar style, with overlight and hoodmould (formerly also a 3-light window). Second square bay has similar 2-light window with hoodmould each floor. Stone ridge stack. Right cross gable has 2 small Gothic lights at different heights to first floor and attic, blank slot between. Broad lower window with stone voussoirs and C20 glazing. Doorway in left return.
East elevation has asymmetrical gable end (of spine range), with 3-light window and stone voussoirs. Pointed door with rough stone head to right and C20 outshut on side of left wing of N range, with similar pointed door. Formerly the gable was not asymmetrical and there was a massive stone chimney to right.
Rear N now has 2 gables with scalloped bargeboards, each side of outshut rear. Left gable is a late C20 addition, colourwashed render with 2 first floor pointed windows. The right gable is the end gable of the front range and has 3-light attic window under hoodmould, 2 long first floor Gothic windows with intersecting tracery, the left one lighting the stair, and a small modern window below. Between the gables, lean-to roof over a former door with stone voussoirs, now window, and 2 windows, all with C20 glazing.

Interior

Not available for inspection at time of survey. Plan made in 1990, before alterations, shows sitting-room in centre of W front (within original building), with study and stair to N; garden room and former entrance hall to S. Passage between hall and stairs separates sitting-room from living-room still in original range, with a boiler room beyond the chimney. Kitchen and dairy were in the N outshut, and the upper SE angle had a woodstore. The winding stair rose from the right side of the entrance hall, and was not part of the earlier building.
Said to retain much Tudor Gothic detailing e.g. four-panelled doors and doorcases with Tudor-arched heads, fireplaces with Tudor detailing, cornices etc. Simple earlier C19 wooden staircase with stick balusters, spiral newel and mahogany rail. Original trusses survive in only a part of the roof, over the W end with bent principals, the feet projecting through modern ceilings. Pegged collar-rafters in pine elsewhere.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a smaller country house of the earlier C19 in picturesque Gothic style.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29494255

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)