History

Small earlier to mid C19 country house built for John Thomas Parry. Not marked on 1831 Colby map (a farm called Pwll Pwdal marked on the site on an 1810 Nanteos map) but mentioned in pre-nuptial agreement of John Thomas Herbert Parry in 1839, and there is a lease of 13/9/1839 from him to the Rev Thomas Parry and John Minshall. The house with 78 acres(31.6 hectares) was owned by John Parry in 1845. A roughly sketched ground plan for John Parry survives from 1866 showing present house and suggesting alterations including additional storey with 2 new rooms over the kitchen and stair over back porch (executed but apparently only in 1934) and enlargements to the kitchen and dining-room, both unexecuted. It shows the veranda but not the 2 canted bays on the S front (which may be of 1878) and the rooms are named as drawing-room SE, dining-room SW, book-room NW and breakfast room NE with passage from W portico to stair hall in centre of N side and NW kitchen wing with scullery at right angles. John Thomas Parry, solicitor, was here in 1851 and 1881, the estate was of 440 acres(178.2 hectares) in 1872. The house descended through the female line to the present day. Alterations and additions in 1934, including staircase (like that at Bryneithyn) and added storey above kitchen to N.

Exterior

Smaller country house, late Georgian style, near square plan in unpainted stucco with low-pitched pyramidal slate deep-eaved roof and tall red brick stacks, to end walls of garden front (one therefore on right roof slope of entrance front) and left of entrance front. Rusticated ground floor, first floor quoins and deep flat eaves. Entrance façade to W is 2-storey, 3-window range with centre columned porch, 12-pane horned sashes to ground floor and 9-pane hornless sashes above, with painted slate sills and shallow reveals. Portico on 2 stone columns standing on square plinths, with moulded bases and caps and matching square pilasters flanking entrance, plain entablature renewed 1930s partially in concrete and flat leaded roof. Two stone steps to porch, slate step to paired 2-panel half-glazed doors with rectangular overlight with inset radial tracery.
S garden front is 2-window range with full height projecting bays with narrow canted sides. First floor windows are horned timber sashes, 2-4-2-pane, ground floor are full-length 3-6-3-pane the centre ones French windows. Bays have roll-moulded angles and moulded cornices. Ground floor of bays is within a painted timber veranda with leaded hipped roof and fretted eaves board with pattern of little arches with points between. Veranda is on squared thin timber posts: four to centre, a pair to each end and another pair just in from each end with latticed timbers between posts. Boarded ends with paired latticed posts each side. Slate floor and stone step.
E side is 3-window in matching materials with the end chimney of the S front set to left on roof slope and a gabled dormer with 4-pane sash and wavy bargeboard on roof. Main floor openings to left are blank owing to chimney, first floor windows centre and right 9-pane sashes as on W façade, ground floor 4-pane earlier C20 horned sash to centre and to right a single opening with paired 4-pane narrow sashes. To far right is inserted narrow 8-pane horned sash with higher sill. Beneath centre window is cellar grille above coal chute opening, beneath right windows are cellar steps with cast iron C19 spearhead railing . Cellar has cambered-headed 4-pane light and boarded timber door with cambered head.
Rear N has wider similar gabled dormer with paired 4-pane sashes and chimney on roof slope to right (left chimney of W front).
Lower attached unpainted stucco two-storey, 3-window service range to left of W front has slate roof hipped to N, and flat eaves. Upper storey, added 1930s, has 12-pane horned timber sashes and ground floor has corresponding blank openings. Small square red brick stack on roof slope right of centre. N end has rusticated rendered first floor and colourwashed rubble ground floor with 12-pane hornless timber sash with stone voussoirs over. Single storey range running E to rear has signs of alteration, ground floor N has inserted 4-pane horned sash with brick dressings to right and C20 opening with concrete lintel to right. Roof hipped to E, stonework continuous with end of service wing. Narrow 3-sided rear NE court is flagged in slate and elevations are rendered, on W service range has 12-pane sash over wide square 8-pane kitchen window, and in SW angle to main house is added stair tower with long earlier C20 leaded-glazed sashes with margin lights one on N one on E, rear door on E. Low N range has 12-pane hornless sash left and boarded door with tiny 3-pane light over window.

Interior

Hall has small ceiling rose, bracketed cornice, timber flooring and 6-panel doors. NW morning room has moulded cornice, marble fireplace and split-level panelled shutters, with corresponding panels beneath window to recess. Similar cornice and fireplace to SW dining Room. French windows have panelled shutters to sides and panelling over. SE drawing room has similar panels and shutters to French windows. Marble fireplace with fleur-de-lys motif. Elaborate decorative stucco cornice with acanthus and water-leaf and ceiling border of rich scroll with rosettes. Staircase of 1934 in unpainted timber with ramped handrail, open treads and twisted paired balusters like that at Bryneithyn Hall. Lower range containing kitchen, pantry and scullery all recently refurbished. Service bells remain. Moulded cornice and foliate rose to upper landing ceiling. Bedrooms have timber fireplaces and moulded cornice. Windows to stair half-landing are leaded with coloured glazing and side margins. Rear wing has 4-panel doors.

Reasons for Listing

Included as an earlier to mid C19 gentry house of an essentially late Georgian character.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29505195

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

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)