Porthamel

Porthamel is a large house of symmetrical plan with a central porch. The main structure is three storeys tall with three gables and five windows in the central range, flanked by two-storey lean-to wings of single window width on each side.

The walls of the main house are constructed of roughly coursed pink and grey gritstone rubble with a moulded plinth. Above the first floor windows, the masonry changes to more squared blocks, continuing to mid-way up the second storey windows, while the gables are built of random rubble masonry. This variation in construction technique reflects successive phases of building work. The ground floor windows have square-headed stone lintels with keystones, while the first and second storey windows have plain stone lintels with slate hood moulds. The roof is slated and pitched with three gables to the front, decorated with scroll-work bargeboards. Chimneys of brick rise from either gable end and from the stair wing addition.

The windows to the main part are 12-pane sashes. Those to the left wing are 16-pane sashes, while the right wing has a 6-pane sash to the ground floor and a 16-pane sash to the first floor.

The central porch is a notable feature. It contains a re-set and widened four-centred doorway with moulded head and jambs set within a rectangular moulded architrave with decorative spandrel work. The porch is flanked by red sandstone piers, each bearing two moulded recessed panels. Inserted in the wall above the piers are stones with initials: "R B" to the right for Rowland Bulkeley and "A C" to the left for his wife Ales Conway. Above the door, enclosed by a rectangular moulded architrave, is a central stone with three elements: to the left a shield bearing a chevron between three stag's heads, to the right another shield bearing a chevron between three Cornish choughs, with initials "R B" over "E B" for Richard Bulkeley and wife Elizabeth between them. Flanking these are stones inscribed "B" over "R M" over "1653" for Rowland Bulkeley, who married Mary Tudur. The side walls of the porch are of sandstone ashlar with pointed arch windows in simple gothic style glazing bars, inscribed "R M" over "1655".

The left lean-to wing has walls similar to the lower walls of the main house, with 16-pane windows beneath flat stone arch lintels. The right wing has walls of a more reddish colour with square-headed stone lintels to the windows. The return elevation of the left wing features a small two-storey projecting wing with a full-height canted bay facing east. This bay now contains French windows to the ground floor and 12-pane sash windows to the first floor, with the central window jettied and supported on piers either side of the French windows.

The central stair wing to the rear of the main block was extended in the mid-19th century and has rubble walls and a pitched slate roof.

The house originated as a 16th-century building, probably of cross-passage form. A rear central stair wing was added around 1700, containing a dog-leg stair with moulded spring and rail, turned balusters, and panelled dado. The entrance hall has a 19th-century patterned mosaic floor. The main hall to the left features a wide inglenook fireplace with a basket arch of rubble voussoirs, possibly part of the original house, with broach-stopped chamfered beams and crossbeams. Deep window reveals are fitted with fielded panelling. Internal elliptical archways connect the rooms. The first floor is said by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales to include two panel doors.