Pentre Morgan

Pentre Morgan is a farmhouse dated 1668, inscribed on the staircase for Morgan and Deborah Wynn, and built on the site of an earlier building. It is located in the rural area of Ellesmere. The house is constructed of red brick in a random bond, with rusticated stone angle quoins and a plain floor band. It has a chamfered plinth with stone coping, and a slate roof with coped verges. The roof features carved stone kneelers, a ball finial to the right gable end, and a stepped cornice to raised eaves.

The building is two storeys with a gable-lit attic, arranged in a 2:1:2 bay plan, with a recessed centre. It has 42-paned cast-iron windows, with the central section of each opening, hung centrally. The centre window and outer windows on both floors were formerly blind, but now contain 30-paned, horned glazing bar sashes. All windows have gauged heads and flush keystones. The central entrance has a wide, early 20th-century half-glazed door with a bracketed, flat stone hood. Twin external end stacks are located to the left and right, flanking a bullseye window illuminating the top attic. These stacks have recessed rectangular panels at the tops and 19th-century dentilled capping. A stepped stack and a single-storey, 19th-century addition are attached to the rear right side. Two-light chamfered stone mullion windows illuminate the cellar to the left gable end.

The most significant interior feature is a dog-leg staircase rising from the ground floor to the top attic, with the inscription ".W./M.D/1668" on the newel of the first half-landing. The staircase has elaborately carved splat balusters to the closed string, with pendants and carved finials to the newels, featuring a variety of lozenge shapes, oval-shaped discs, carved hearts and other decorative elements. A panelled wall cupboard with H-hinges is positioned below the stairs on the first flight. The house has timber-framed cross walls with square and rectangular panels, and chamfered ceiling beams with a variety of stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops throughout the ground and first floors. A rear right stack on the ground floor features an inglenook fireplace with a richly moulded wooden lintel, while wide panelled doors and wide oak floorboards run throughout (the ground floor was formerly stone-flagged). A notable space is the top attic, or 'ball room,' a large, undivided room lit by bullseye windows at each end, revealing the tops of four truncated curved principals. These principals are thought to be contemporary with the building’s construction, although the truncated tops likely resulted from the raising of the eaves in the early 19th century. Reused timbers are present elsewhere in the house. The property includes brick-walled cellars. There is a mention of previously existing dormers to the front, and the house may originally have been gable fronted. Although some balusters, particularly on the upper flights, have been replaced, the staircase remains a fine, dated example.