Llwydiarth Esgob Farmhouse

Llwydiarth Esgob Farmhouse

A predominantly Georgian gentry house with late 19th-century remodelling. It comprises two storeys with attics, extended to a double-pile plan with additional wings to the rear and either side of the main block. The structure is built of rubble masonry with rendered elevations throughout. The slate roof has stone copings and rendered brick stacks; the main double-pile block features diagonally set triple stacks with capping, and a rectangular brick gable stack at the north-west rear gable.

The principal elevation faces south-east, away from the agricultural ranges. The main part of the house to the right is a two-storey, three-window range with a central entrance now housed in a modern canted timber glazed porch with a 16-pane hornless sash window above. Flanking the entrance are late 19th-century full-height canted bays with hornless sash windows. To the left of the main part of the house is an added late 19th-century block containing the 'solicitor's office' at ground floor level, with a wide full-height canted bay. Set back from the right side of the main part is another added late 19th-century block housing the 'lower kitchen' at ground floor and the nursery above, now with a modern full-height canted bay matching that of the opposite wing.

The rear elevation comprises a four-window range between axial stacks, which probably mark the extent of the original house. The entrance is through a lean-to porch offset to the left. Advanced wings flank either end. The original part of the house provided service accommodation, with the 'upper kitchen' to the rear right and 'lower kitchen' to the left, with a first-floor nursery over. The right advanced wing has a ground-floor 16-pane hornless sash window with a canted oriel window above; the return has a single-storey addition with a 12-pane hornless sash to the right (south-east). The left advanced wing housed the governesses' bedroom on the first floor and has a single-storey gabled dairy wing to the left with a lean-to privy at the far left (north-east) end. The return has ground and first-floor 16-pane hornless sash windows; the attic, dairy, and ground-floor gable windows are replacements, with the attic window being a new opening.

Internally, the principal rooms occupy the mid-19th-century front block, with service accommodation to the rear and an axial corridor linking the added service and bedroom wings. The main entrance opens into a wide central hallway with the drawing room to the right and dining room to the left, both retaining 19th-century moulded covings and panelled doors. The principal staircase is centrally located to the rear of the hallway, a dog-leg stair with a moulded clasping handrail on shaped balusters. Axial corridors run left and right along the inner wall of the older part of the house, with staircases positioned either side.

The rear block, the original house, housed the 'upper kitchen' to the left, used by the housekeeper or butler, which retains a range and hooks to the ceiling. To the right are narrow pantries, with a cellar reached from the back hallway. The 'lower kitchen' occupies the right (north) wing with the nursery above. The dairy is in the single-storey wing to the rear, formerly powered by horse works driving the churn; the central mechanism for this survives in situ in the garden to the west. The nursery and governesses' room are reached by a separate staircase in the rear wing, which also leads to a small loft above. To the left front of the house is a late 19th-century addition built to serve as a solicitor's office. The first floor contains a total of nine bedrooms. A large servants' loft in the attic to the rear part of the house retains boarded doors and partitions.