Tros-y-marian

Tros-y-marian

Late 17th-century double-pile gentry house, now listed at Grade II*. The building comprises 2 storeys with attics and a cellar. It is constructed of roughly coursed limestone and gritstone, with a slate roof featuring stone copings and tall rectangular gable stacks with moulded cappings.

The principal elevation faces south, presenting a symmetrical range of seven windows on the ground and first floors. These are 12-pane hornless sash windows arranged across the façade. A small central gable with moulded copings and shaped kneelers rises above, surmounted by a chimney with moulded capping. The central doorway has a pedimented doorcase with moulded architrave and retains an original (repaired) door with fielded upper panels. Above the doorway sits a dummy window, and set within the gable apex is a small recess with a flat pointed head and moulded architrave. Bands of dressed gritstone run horizontally at the height of the window heads, with slightly projecting keystones positioned over each window. The sill level of all ground floor windows has been raised with modern sills added.

The east and west gable returns each feature a main gable and a secondary advanced gable, both with moulded copings and shaped kneelers. The east gable return displays a tripartite first-floor window above a 12-pane hornless sash; below this is a cellar entrance with a boarded door. The advanced gable contains a first-floor venetian window positioned over a 3-pane light at the head of a boarded window serving what was formerly a roofless wing room on the ground floor.

The rear (north) elevation presents an unbroken wall face with three gables. Above the end gables stand original chimney stacks of gritstone ashlar with moulded cappings. Windows have flat gritstone heads with projecting keystones. Beneath the central gable is a late 18th-century venetian window lighting the later staircase. An entrance doorway below features a square head with chamfered jambs. The flanking gables have 12-pane first-floor hornless sash windows; the ground floor contains 16-pane sash windows to the right and a boarded door under a 3-pane fanlight and 6-pane light to the left.

The main entrance opens into a central hallway with flanking principal rooms to the front and staircases to the rear, flanked by service rooms. The hall has a panelled dado and a ceiling of nine bays with original beams and moulded cornice. Above the fireplace is a painted plaster shield bearing the arms of Iarddur—a stag's head cabossed. Doorways to the staircase hall feature semi-circular heads with moulded architraves and panelled pilasters with moulded caps and bases; doorways to adjoining rooms have square heads and moulded architraves. The room to the left (east) contains re-used early 17th-century panelling with a moulded cornice and some late 18th-century cupboards. The opposing room is reported by RCAHM to retain original painted wall panelling with moulded cornice and dado rail, though this was not inspected during the survey. The kitchen contains an original oak beam and a segmental arch above the former fireplace, with a lower arch serving a former deep bakehouse oven to the right. A repaired late 17th-century door to the kitchen bears incised initials and the date "R R 1769". The original staircase features boldly turned balusters, moulded strings and handrail, and square newels. The later staircase has slender balusters and a continuous handrail, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling above.

The first floor comprises four rooms along the south side (above the hall and principal rooms) and one over the kitchen, all panelled. The two rooms above the hall feature bolection mouldings; the other rooms display panelling similar to the west principal ground-floor room (circa 1700), some of which has been removed to replace damaged panelling below. The southeast wing has been re-roofed with a raised ceiling and floor inserted to create a first-floor bedroom.