Llwyd Mansion, 1-3 Cross Street

Llwyd Mansion, 1-3 Cross Street

This Grade I listed building is a house built in the mid-to-late 15th century and remodelled in the early 17th century with the addition of a third storey. Significant alterations occurred during the 1880s, early 20th century, and 1980s. The building has been in commercial use since at least the late 19th century and is currently used as a hair salon.

The building is of timber-framed construction with rendered infill panels. The eastern gable wall has brick infill, and the ground-floor shopfront is of timber and brick. The roof covering is plain tile.

The building occupies a rectangular plan with a prominent gabled elevation to the west facing Bailey Street and two entrances on the south elevation facing Cross Street. It is three storeys plus a gable-lit attic, across five bays onto Cross Street to the south and two wide bays onto Bailey Street to the west.

The roof projects out over the western gable end wall, supported on curved timber brackets. A 20th-century shop front runs the length of both exposed elevations, comprising a series of multipaned fixed windows over brick plinths, separated by timber pilasters and rising to a moulded fascia board. An angled entrance on the south-west corner has decoratively carved timber details and a half-glazed 20th-century door. A second matching entrance is located within the second bay from the east.

The first and second floors have exposed timber framing. On the first floor, the pattern consists of rectangular panels with long, straight tension braces to the westernmost bay of the south elevation and the end panels of the west elevation. The second floor and gable are jettied, with a series of curved brackets rising from thin timber posts with cushion capitals and a fluted jetty bressumer. These upper floors have close studding with rails, and beneath the attic window to the west elevation are four quatrefoil panels, probably a late 19th-century addition.

The fenestration pattern of the south elevation is irregular. On the first floor, the first, third and fourth bays from the east contain late 19th-century mullion and transom windows with projecting moulded aprons. The central bay (third from the east) also contains an additional small four-light mullion window, possibly original. The second bay from the east contains a restored 15th-century four-light window with trefoil heads, mouchettes, and quatrefoils above. On the second floor, the three easternmost bays each contain a 19th-century timber casement directly beneath the eaves. On the west elevation, the first floor carries two mullion and transom windows with moulded aprons matching those on the south elevation. The second floor has a single centrally placed eight-pane mullion and transom window with a thicker moulded central mullion and a deep moulded apron. Above, lighting the attic, is a small centrally placed four-pane timber casement with a moulded apron.

The second bay from the west on the south elevation carries a plaster roundel featuring a double-headed eagle, the coat-of-arms of the Llwyd family, with the words LLWYD/1607/MANSION in late 19th or 20th-century lettering.

The interior retains much exposed timber framing, and many of the beams are substantial in length and width. Principal beams and posts are chamfered. On the first floor are upward and downward swinging braces from the wall posts, and a dragon beam for the storey above in the westernmost bay. Further timber framing is exposed on the second floor, including later beams to the ceiling; the second floor is believed to have originally been open to the roof. The roof is of Queen-strut construction in five bays with both open and closed trusses, curved and cusped wind braces, and downward and upward swinging chamfered curved braces to the tie beams from the principal rafters and wall-posts respectively.