Corris Institute

The Corris Institute is a late medieval vernacular revival style building, dating from the 20th century. The exterior is pebbledashed over stone, with rendered quoins to the ground floor and a timber-framed upper floor featuring whitewashed panels. It has slate roofs. The main elevation, facing the road, is composed of three bays of unequal width. The left bay is set asymmetrically, with a three-light iron-framed window in a rendered quoined surround on the ground floor, and a similarly styled but unaligned four-light window to the first floor, set within the timber framing and beneath a wide studded gable. The central bay has a projecting open porch with large bracketed posts forming an arch. Within the porch is a boarded and studded door, secured by strap hinges, set within an archway; narrow iron windows flank the door. Brackets support the jettied first floor, which features a canted oriel window. The gable is further jettied and studded, with deep eaves. An upper bracketed beam carries an iron inscription commemorating 1939-1945, and a glazed clock is suspended from a lower iron bracket. The third, narrower bay has three-light windows on both the ground and first floors. A slate and marble tablet commemorating those lost in the First World War and listing 24 names is applied to the left bay; a smaller tablet within the porch commemorates the 9 names of those lost in the Second World War. The return elevation on the south side features two small gables over three-light windows, some with puntil panes, and double doors in an arched opening in the end bay. A bracketed chimney stack rises from the first floor near the centre, although the upper shafts have been removed. The rear of the building comprises two unequal rendered gables with windows similar to those on the first floor, along with a large hipped slated extension on the ground floor.

The front door opens into an oak-panelled through hall. To the left is a timber partition leading to the main assembly hall, which includes a raised stage and a lateral slate fireplace with an overmantel. An open-well timber staircase leads to the first floor, which contains a large billiards room with raised side seating and an open roof, and a library in a rear room. A stone panel affixed to the wall in the entrance records the building’s date of foundation and the endowments given by Sir Howell J Williams, of London.