Gresford

TORQUAY

SX9264SW HIGHER WARBERRY ROAD 885-1/20/112 (South side) Gresford

GV II

Villa. c1870s. Plastered; slate roof; stacks with rendered shafts with deep projecting cornices. Italianate style. PLAN: Double-depth rectangular plan with a projecting south-east corner tower. Entrance on the east side into a large, heated stair hall. North service wing separately occupied. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Deep eaves and verges on shaped paired brackets. Asymmetrical 1:1-window east front, the tower to the left with a deep hipped roof, corbelled out on shaped brackets. The entrance block is gabled to the front with verge band, platband and pilaster strips. Projecting flat-roofed porch with paired pilasters, entablature and dentil cornice below parapet. Round-headed doorway with pilasters, moulded arch and keyblock. Panelled front door with plain fanlight; round-headed windows to the returns. First-floor segmental-headed window with moulded, eared, shouldered architrave, glazed with a tripartite sash. Bottom stage of tower has round-headed windows with sill blocks, one to each face; upper stage with similar windows, linked by superordinate moulded arch with keyblocks. Garden elevation has 2-storey canted bays with cornices and a C20 first-floor bowed, cast-iron balcony between, balcony glazed in. INTERIOR: Rich in original and some imported features. Open-well stair with turned balusters and secondary bronze figures supporting lamps on the newel posts. Original plaster cornices, joinery etc and white Italian marble chimneypieces. Porch has original tiled floor. Stained glass in entrance hall. Dining room contains fine chimneypiece with massive sculpted figures, said to be copy of an Italian original and introduced into the house this century. HISTORY: The house is said to have been lived in by Lord Haldon at one time but no corroborative information found to date. A good example of a large Torquay villa, still in use as a house and with lavish interior detail.

Listing NGR: SX9234364191